Above Brooklyn: An Interview with Filmmaker Heather Spilkin

Posted by: L.V. Lopez on: May 9, 2011

• In: Film Projections
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From On the Waterfront to Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, movie-going audiences have caught glimpses of the urban art of pigeon keeping over the years.

Brooklyn-based filmmaker Heather Spilkin’s delightful documentary Above Brooklyn profiles the local community of pigeon keepers who aim to carry on this increasingly endangered tradition.  Above Brooklyn premiered on September 12, 2009, at the Rooftop Film Festival, and will now be shown this Wednesday, May 11th at 6pm, at Anthology Film Archives, as part of the NewFilmmakers New York series.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Heather, on the occasion of this upcoming screening.

Franklin Laviola: How did Above Brooklyn come about?  Have you always had an interest in pigeons and the local people who raise their own pigeons?   If not, how did you become interested in the subject matter?

Heather Spilkin: It was six years ago the first time I saw a rooftop pigeon breeder flying birds in Brooklyn.  He had about 600 pigeons flying at the same time, and it was really beautiful.  In an effort to meet him, I began asking around the neighborhood about the mysterious pigeon flyer, but many people I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about.  So it was appealing to me that there was this semi-secret subculture existing right over our heads.  I also like that this hobby is a way to connect with nature while living in an urban area.  Being up on the roof with these birds is very peaceful, and has a totally different feeling from the noisy and hectic streets below.

FL: How did you get in contact with the many colorful characters, whom you interview in the documentary?  Something tells me it was not as simple as placing a notice for pigeon enthusiasts on Craigslist.

HS: They don’t have a huge online presence, so you really need to go to the rooftops to find these guys.  There was one day during my research when my friend Jorge and I hopped on our bikes and rode up to Williamsburg in search of pigeon breeders.  We saw a stock of pigeons on the horizon, so we just followed the birds until we reached the building they were coming from, and luckily we were able to enter and gain access to the rooftop.  That’s how I found José’s rooftop, and where I met Ritchie, who was watching over José’s birds for him.  Most of the pigeon guys know each other, so once you meet one they introduce you to the others.  I also met some of them at Broadway Pigeon, a store in Bedford-Stuyvesant where you can buy and sell pigeons.  Many of the breeders hang out there on Sunday mornings and talk about their birds.

FL: Over how long a period of time did you conduct the interviews?  Would you say the pigeon enthusiasts were cooperative during the course of shooting?

HS: I was working full-time while I made this film, so we did most of the shooting on weekends for a total of 16 shooting days over a one year period.  I was very lucky to have cinematographers Anton Sherin, Matthew McDermott, Michael Schley, Jorge Garcia-Spitz, and Alexis Holloway donate their time and talents to help me shoot this project.  Most of the pigeon fanciers I met were very open to the idea of being interviewed.  Many of them expressed a hope to get the word out about the sport/hobby, so that more people will get into breeding pigeons.  There is a game they play called catch/keep, that involves trying to catch each other’s birds by tricking them to land on the wrong roof.  This game is much more fun and competitive when you have a larger group of people involved.  Also, the breeders are very proud of their birds, so they really enjoy any opportunity to show off their best pigeons.

FL: I really enjoyed how you interspersed Super 8mm footage of the pigeons in flight over the rooftops, throughout the film.  What other cameras did you use?  Did you have multiple cameras, running simultaneously, at all times?

HS: For the film portion we shot on both regular 8mm and super 8mm cameras, but we used them sparingly since the film and processing can get expensive, and this was a very low-budget film.  Michael Schley shot most of the film footage on a regular 8mm Bell and Howell Filmo sportster and a regular 8mm Dejour.  I had also shot a bit of it myself on a Yashica super 8 camera that I bought for $3.75 at a thrift store.  We were shooting around the time that they had just discontinued Kodachrome super 8mm film, but I was able to get two cartridges, which I was very happy about because I love the lush colors of Kodachrome.  We only shot 40 minutes total of 8 mm film footage, but I tried to use as much as I could in the edit.  This is an old-school hobby, and I think the 8mm film helps to express that.

Filmmaker Heather Spilkin

FL: You have a background as an editor.  Tell me about the editing process on this film.  How many hours of footage did you have in all?  How long was your post-production?

HS: After we shot the first four interviews and the pigeon auction, I cut together a 17-minute version of the film that I screened at a fundraiser held to help raise finishing funds.  That initial cut was very helpful in guiding our future shoots, since it allowed me to really pinpoint the ideas I wanted to cover in order to complete the project.  In the end I had 20 hours of footage that I cut down to a half hour version and a 40-minute version.  I still have the film on my computer, and I occasionally watch it and make small changes, which has got to stop!  I think I’m finally satisfied with the current 40-minute version, which is the one that will screen at Anthology.

FL: Curb Your Dog’s score for the film, with its use of banjo and the occasional harmonica, has a folksy, country feel to it.  How did you come to decide on this more buoyant musical tone for the project, rather than something more immediately suggestive of urban life?

HS: I had tried many different types of tracks with the footage, and Chris Sabatini’s music (aka Curb Your Dog) just seemed to fit perfectly.   Also, Chris was the person who had given me the idea to make a documentary about pigeon breeders, so I wanted to have him involved in the project somehow.  I feel like the folksy country feel helps to emphasize that this is a hobby from another time.

FL: As we learn, raising pigeons requires a lot of time and maintenance.  Many of these pigeon “fanciers” are obsessive about their hobby.  One of them, for example, mentions that he was married once, but chose his birds over his wife.  Were you ever tempted to film any of these guys at home and observe how they interact with their families?

HS: I wanted to keep this film focused primarily on the breeders’ friendships and competition with each other, but for a longer and more in-depth documentary, I think it would be really interesting to film their family life.  I did encounter some breeders who had ended relationships because of their obsession with this hobby.   But I also met others who are teaching their sons how to breed pigeons, and sometimes their wives and girlfriends get into the hobby as well.  One thing I had hoped to include was the point of view of a female pigeon fancier, and although there are a few of them in Brooklyn, I was not able to track any down for an interview.

FL: What is the New York Combine?

HS: New York Combine is a specialty pigeon club that has created their own breed called the American Domestic Show Flight.  In the late 1940’s, the club drew a picture of a bird that did not exist, and then spent many years breeding for certain characteristics until they had created the pigeon that fit their original concept.  In the documentary we visit their annual pigeon show that awards prizes to the breeders of the American Domestic Show Flight that best fits the standard they created.

FL: Why do you think rooftop pigeon breeding is an endangered tradition in Brooklyn?

HS: It has become increasingly difficult for pigeon breeders to gain rooftop access for their coops as parts of the borough have become more gentrified.  Several of the breeders in the documentary have lost their rooftop access since the shooting of the film.  There is also a lack of younger people learning how to breed pigeons.  This hobby is passed down from father to son, so these days its tough for the pigeons to compete with video games and the internet.  It’s unfortunate, because breeding pigeons is a great way to connect with nature within the urban landscape, and many of the breeders credit these birds for keeping them out of trouble when they were growing up.

FL: There are some very unusual-looking pigeons on screen, due to extensive multi-generational in-breeding and cross-breeding.  Did you come to have a personal favorite individual pigeon or type of “New Pigeon”?

HS: My favorite pigeon is the Jacobin, which is a fancy breed that appears briefly in the documentary during the American Domestic Flight Show.  Jacobins have a large fluffy collar of feathers surrounding their neck, and they look kind of like the bird version of a very elegant woman wearing a fur coat.  Pigeon fanciers create Jacobins by selectively breeding for a characteristic feature growth around the neck of the bird, which causes certain feathers to grow in a reverse direction, creating the distinctive fluffy collar.  It is rumored that pigeon fancier Queen Elizabeth I was inspired by Jacobins when she wore her famously high collars.

The Jacobin Pigeon

FL: What is your ideal distribution plan for Above Brooklyn?

HS: After the Anthology screening I plan to self-distribute the film by selling it online.  I hope to release it in time for June 13th, which is National Pigeon Day (yes, there is actually a National Pigeon Day!).  Many pigeon fanciers have expressed interest in buying the film, so I am excited that it will soon be available to them.

FL: What’s next for you, Heather?  Are you working on another film, fiction or documentary, at the moment?

HS: At the moment I am focusing on my editing career, but I have begun research for my next documentary, which will be about synesthesia in the arts.  Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense leads to an automatic, involuntary experience from a second sense. For example, there are some musicians who actually see particular colors when they play music in a certain key.  I’m currently looking for synesthetes to interview.

FL: Excellent.  Good luck with the screening and with your new project!

Franklin P. Laviola is a filmmaker and freelance writer, based in the New York area. He wrote and directed the award-winning short film “Happy Face,” which has screened at over twenty film festivals.  He recently wrote on the 35th Anniversary of the film Taxi Driver and on the life and passing of actress Maria Schneider.   Above Brooklyn will be screening at Anthology Film Archives on Wednesday, May 11.

Tags: Above Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Documentaries, Film, Heather Spilkin, Local, Movies