The Call of the Hummingbird

As the issue of global warming gains a growing degree of media attention through the efforts of environmental activists, the questions asked by many people is “What can be done to remedy the situation?” and “Where can we start?” First time filmmaker Alice Klein (previously a writer and editor with Toronto Now, one of Canada’s largest alternative newspapers) ponders these questions as well as a few other points she hadn’t expected to consider in the documentary Call of the Hummingbird. Klein and a small camera crew traveled to Brazil, where an international group of activists and concerned citizens came together with natives to establish a village that could exist in ecological balance with nature for two weeks. While learning how to live without taxing the earth more than is necessary, Klein also explores the cultural and spiritual differences between the Brazilian people and their North American counterparts, as well as discovering some seemingly prophetic facts about the Mayan calendar. Call of the Hummingbird received its world premiere at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival.