thsi was interesting, animal cognition is up my alley and i think its a very promising emerging field that has the potential to dramatically shift the way we interact w the animals that surround us. like seriously, if this research continues, there r huge ethical implications and we will b forced to seriously confront what we have done to the animal kingdom (mass murder, displacement, slavery, torture, MUCH more...etc). i dont think that humanity is ready to face itself in that way yet though because it would mean giving up so much of our daily life and it wld b such an abrupt and dramatic change in our perspective on how we relate 2 the world and ourselves. so, this research is extremely important work, and it is planting the seeds for a movement that i think will get really big and taken seriously years down the line, but not right now.
this film is about pet birds. films like this arent taken seriously because interspecies relations and animal rights, especially rhe topic of pets are often laughed at and seen as championed by overly sensitive/feminine/nurturing personalities bc pets r seen as children/a childlike topic. like the protagonist is an overly caring parrot mom who loves her adopted birds like they are her children and the audience was full of mostly older women with a soft spot for cute animals. (btw, i have lots of issues w the politics of "cuteness")
the truth is that this deep commitment to to not only interspecies relations, but to giving her birds a VOICE (aka some form of autonomy) is some of the most revolutionary sht ive seen in a while...... her curiosity abt the interiority of these birds and finding out what brings them joy in life is so sincere and totally subverts the ways in which people think about the animals in their lives.
i feel like people dont really care about this topic though, like who cares about changing how we think abt the animals in our lives. really though animal oppression (imo) in the root of human oppression so ultimately, we will have to seriously deconstruct our relationship to animals if the goal is liberation for ourselves.
something to be said though about her feeling empty w/o parrots and relying on them for her emotional comfort. good thing that there is no shortage of birds in adoption centers for her to give a good life to, but i wonder what she thinks of birds being bred to b kept in captivity in general. interesting also is how animal cognition is only taken seriously when it is displayed thru human modes of expression like words... i guess that is half our bias toward humans and half of our limitations to only really being able 2 observe what we already understand.
very interesting to see parrots relating with technology, especially ellie who learned how to use facetime on the ipad and would call people (and other parrots) when bored... so much about this movie brought up a lot of interesting questions and discussions.