After the Birds

AFTER THE BIRDS  by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Megan Sperry, is a short film about my project WHEN THERE WERE BIRDS. Part documentary, part meditation on death, love, and the story of the first known flutes, it was shot in 2019 in my studio and the gallery. The release of After the Birds has been delayed by the pandemic caused closures of film festivals. In the meantime it lives here as we look for new ways to bring it to the public. In the film, Sperry and Blaustein also capture the first collaborative moments of musicians Steve Gorn (bansuri flute) and Timothy Hill (harmonic vocals) with the birds and myself. These became the seeds for an improvisational performance that included Iva Bittova (vocals and violin). The creation of WHEN THERE WERE BIRDS was funded by an emergency grant from Foundation for Contemporary Arts and by an individual artist grant from Arts MidHudson. I hope to bring this piece to its next iteration as we uncover new sounds, forms, ways of collaborating and sources of funding.