Pecking Order

This highly-entertaining crowdpleaser is “Best in Show”-meets-political-thriller, and if you take away the accents, it could just as well be set in Leelanau County. Fowl play’s afoot at the Christchurch Poultry, Bantam, and Pigeon Club. The much-maligned pigeon fanciers may be mounting a coup; the leadership style of the elderly chairman has ruffled a few feathers. Slavko Martinov (“Propaganda,” TCFF 2013) affectionately allows his subjects’ sunny-sided demeanors to shine. And the chickens are indisputably cute as they are happily soaped in kitchen sinks and blown dry by hand. Martinov frames his film as a classic countdown-to-the-big-National-Show, and it’s hard not to get caught up in all the tension and trappings, especially when the top contenders receive a bagpipe serenade on their way to the final judging area. This masterful celebration of passion, obsession, and humanity’s capacity for competitiveness is less about the birds and more about the memorable characters, from the irascible, KFC-munching chairman to the by-the-book judge who quite literally wrote the book.

PRE-SHOW MUSIC BY
Lucky Vs the Bomb (Thu)
Mary Mcguire (Sun)

SPONSORED BY
Peggy & Graham Martin (Wed)
Peggy & Graham Martin (Wed)
In Memory of Stuart Hollander (Thu)
Mike & Colleen Wolfe (Sun)