Woodpecker

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Fanatical birdwatchers have descended upon a small town in the Arkansas bayou in hopes of finding the celebrated Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Declared extinct in the 1940s, the bird has apparently been spotted by numerous experts. Enter amateur birder and poet Johnny Neander, who has convinced his taciturn sidekick that he will be the one to find the elusive woodpecker. The ensuing chaos divides the small town between believers and non-believers, rabid environmentalists and opportunistic entrepreneurs. Much like the bird itself, Woodpecker explores the intersection of fact and fiction, manipulating our notions of documentary and narrative techniques within a tragic comedy about hope, perception, and some very very strange birds.

Johnny Berlin

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Jon Hyrns is a porter on a refurbished 1930s luxury train. Passengers on the Seattle-to-L.A. trip know him as “Johnny Berlin” – the man responsible for making their beds and cleaning their toilets. We get to know him differently – as a middle-aged, struggling writer with a workaday job and as many dreams as he has beds to clean. He’s a true wanderer, whose plan is to spend his savings on a trip to Cambodia to write his long-gestating novel.

Jon Hyrns – MRQE

Woodpecker

Johnny Berlin