Rural Gardening: mad city chickens and other films/TV shows starring chickens, 1 by garden_mermaid

garden_mermaid wrote:
Chickens are becoming quite the movie stars!

It looks like this Madison, WI group inspired a movie (or was it the other way around?)
http://www.madcitychickens.com/index.html

Check out the movie "Mad City Chickens"
http://www.tarazod.com/filmsmadchicks.html

This is a documentary on raising chickens in the city with a little twist to it. I've posted one of the still shots from the sci fi part of the film. Do you see the giant chicken?

Quoting:LOGLINE
Mad City Chickens is a film about people who keep chickens in the city.

SYNOPSES:
Witness if you will Gallus Domesticus…the backyard chicken. A mere few pounds of feather, bone, and muscle; a creature regarded by many as a rather humorous, though not so intelligent agent of food production.

And yet make note of a most singular phenomenon now taking shape across
suburb and city. From backyard eggs to the family’s new favorite pet, the urban chicken is forging a fresh place in the pecking order of human importance.

Mad City Chickens deftly weaves multiple stories and contextual issues on city chickens and their keepers in a non-linear fashion that one rarely sees in a documentary. From leading experts to urban newbies, experience the humor and heart of what’s fast becoming an international backyard chicken movement.

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
~Mother Earth News Editor-in-Chief, Cheryl Long
~Leading bird flu expert, Dr. Michael Greger
~Rare behind-the-scenes at Murray McMurray Hatchery
~Backyard Poultry editor, Elaine Belanger
~Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities, Christine Heinrichs
~Stunning results from nutritional study on pastured eggs
~Follow an urban family for an entire year as they take the poultry plunge
~A factory farm hen that refused to die even after being gassed and dumped at a landfill

PLUS…coops, birds, eggs, art, images from the Seattle Tilth group, founding members of the Mad City Chickens group, a California musical hen, a Texas life-saving flock…and yes…even a mad professor and a giant chicken find their way into the mix.

Do these production notes remind you of any chickens you know?

Quoting: PRODUCTION NOTES:
We finished setting up the green screen area to shoot the next batch of footage with our star chicken. What an experience!

Two important facts to remember:

1- Chickens don’t walk in a straight line…except when the camera is not rolling.

2- When the camera is rolling, chickens prefer to preen rather than perform.

The hens enjoyed the experience much more than we did. But then we discovered spaghetti. There’s nothing like a wet, wiggly worm-like piece of spaghetti to get your actors to move from point A to point B without hesitation or complaint.

http://tarazod.com/blog/?page_id=109

Trailers for viewing here:
http://www.tarazod.com/filmsmadchicks2.html


If you ever get a change to see the British police drama series "Pie in the Sky", I highly recommend it. (it plays on PBS from time to time) Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe (Richard Griffiths aka Vernon Dursley of Harry Potter film fame) keeps chickens in the back garden of his wife's urban restaurant. There is a chicken coup scene in almost every episode. Henry plays Elgar and other soothing pieces of music to the chickens. He is frequently seen with a chicken in his lap, petting and talking to the bird. He frequently philosophizes with the chickens.
Here is some info on the series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_in_the_Sky_(TV_series)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pie-Sky-1-5-Box-Set/dp/B000GW8TE6/re...

An Australian chicken coop manufacturer has even named one of their chicken coop models the "Henry Crabbe".

Can you recommend any other chicken movies or TV shows?