For nearly a year, a series of names have buzzed around my brain like so many tiny birds: Cactus. Wasabi. Larry Bird. How are they? What are they doing? Where are they? Spend any amount of time with Sally Aitken’s delicate, immensely touching documentary “Every Little Thing,” and you’ll fall to the same obsessions and curiosities.
In Aitken’s doc, you’ll meet Cactus, Wasabi, Larry Bird, and many more. You’ll meet the people who, often quite unexpectedly, rescue these tiny hummingbirds from various kind of peril. And you’ll meet bonafide real-life hero Terry Masear, who has turned her Los Angeles home into a hummingbird haven for all sorts of tiny charges.
Aitken doesn’t skimp on incredible, immersive hummingbird footage, all bright colors and fast-flapping wings, quick little tails, shining pinprick eyes. Hummingbirds are so delicate, so feather-light, so special, it’s easy to see why Terry has dedicated her later life to saving them. Terry’s sprawling hillside home is awash in hand-made cages and enclosures, her own army of self-made tools, and years of training, all of which seem hewn out of experience and tough lessons.
Inevitably, you will wonder about who exactly Terry is, or at least how she found her way to this work, and Aitken teases out facts from Terry’s life, both wonderful and horrible before the birds came, before Terry herself gets down to the business of laying it out plain. Like so many works of cinematic art in recent years, there’s a story of trauma tucked inside “Every Little Thing,” but Terry (a real tough cookie!) shows in both her words and actions what that looks like on the other side, what you can turn that into.
“Every Little Thing” is, of course, a film about tiny hummingbirds. But it’s also about people, and the big world they (hopefully) can all inhabit together.
The film made its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and has continued to screen widely at film festivals worldwide including, SXSW, CPH:DOX, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, IFFBoston, Hot Docs, Hamptons Film Festival, and next at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. In October, Kino Lorber picked up the film, and will release it in theaters early next year.
Check out the first trailer and poster for “Every Little Thing,” both exclusive to IndieWire, below. Kino Lorber will release the film in New York City at the IFC Center on Friday, January 10 and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Monica Film Center to follow on Friday, January 17, with a national rollout to follow.
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