Realm of the Karearea

The documentary Karearea: The Pine Falcon, an audience favourite at the 29 Tallahassee Film Festival, is screening as part of the Tallahassee Film Society’s annual “bird movie” Saturday at the All Saints Cinema this month. The documentary was a labour of love made by American Sandy Crichton who traveled to Otago to live among the birds and the loggers who share the same lonely landscape near the bottom of the world. It’s also where an ongoing war of the wills is being waged between the lumberjacks and the fearless falcons. The scrappy New Zealand falcons — which are the only birds of prey endemic to New Zealand — build nests by making a scrape on the ground or beneath the roots of large trees. This is not such a good place to be when loggers move in. “[They are] an exciting, challenging bird,” New Zealand nature photographer George Chance, 88, says with plenty of understatement in the documentary. “They really knock you around.” The karearea features on the reverse of the New Zealand $2 note and has twice been used on New Zealand stamps. It was also featured on a collectable $5 coin in 26.