Hello,
Today, award-winning filmmaker, Gerard Smyth, released his latest short film Looking for New Zealand's most elusive bird.
The film follows our Advisory Trustee, Rhys Buckingham, as he reflects on 43 years of searching for the South Island kōkako and embarks on a further search in Abel Tasman National Park recently.
Gerard bumped into Rhys over 20 years ago and was so taken by Rhys' passion for the search that he made a film of Rhys and the late Ron Nilsson on a search expedition to the Granville forest, south of Reefton, back in 2001. In the new film, Rhys reviews snippets of the old one, including the moment when Ron believes he may have heard the bird.
I couldn't wait to share this wonderful film with you, so here it is:
On Youtube here and below.
And with a write up and link on Stuff here.
And a link to the film and more from, and about, Frank Film here.
We are enormously fortunate and grateful to have this story told and told so beautifully - enjoy!
Inger Perkins
Manager, South Island Kōkako Charitable Trust