On the beat
Chicken People (G) 83 mins THIS year is fast turning out to be the cinematic year of the chicken. We’ve already had local fanciers on display in the delightful Pecking Order and Morgan Spurlock has just unfurled his battle against Big Chicken ( Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!) at the Toronto Film Festival.
Now along comes this United States documentary, made before Slavko Martinov’s wry look at the inner workings of the Christchurch Poultry, Bantam and Pigeon Club.
It’s a similarly affectionate portrait of show quality white leghorns and silkies and the people who care for them, but Chicken People lacks the political intrigue and drama of Order.
None of Missouri musical theatre performer Brian Caraker, New Hampshire engineer Brian Knox or Indiana homemaker Shari McCollough look like they’d turn up to a meeting armed with a bucket of KFC.
Employing the time-honoured Spellbound format, director Nicole Lucas Haimes (whose previous works have focused on subjects like the human genome and sex offenders)focuses on this widespread trio as they prepare their fowls for the 2015 Ohio National Show, aiming for the title of Super Grand Champion.
While each has their own engaging quirks and obsessions (Caraker sings classics from the American Songbook to his flock), the lack of connection between the three means the story never really compels in the same way Order did.
Chicken People works best in its dissection of what the judges are looking for and what it takes to transform an ordinary farm chicken into a show one.
Like New Zealand, chicken fanciers have their own bible in