SUMMER OF BIRDS

• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Dec 1, 2009

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“A Summer of Birds,” which airs at 7 p.m. Wednesday on WLPB, Channel 27 (cable Channel 12), has a homegrown flavor that will be appreciated, in different ways, from Port Allen to Poughkeepsie.

Based on Danny Heitman’s book,  “A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House” (LSU Press), the Louisiana Public Broadcasting documentary is beautifully shot by LPB’s Rex Q. Fortenberry, written and directed by regional Emmy winner Christina Melton, scored by regional Emmy winner Mike Esneault and narrated by actress Sela Ward. The film was produced by LPB’s Liz Barnes.

“A Summer of Birds” is a fine introduction to Audubon and to his short but life-changing stay in the summer and fall of 1821 at Oakley Plantation outside St. Francisville.

For Baton Rouge and St. Francisville viewers, there is the bonus of familiar faces playing members of the Pirrie family, owners of Oakley House preserved today as the centerpiece of Audubon State Historic Site.

Look for St. Francisville residents Stephen Jones, Kathryn Ward and Alexandra Kennon.   James Smith and high school students Cedric Williams and Desmond Hopkins also appear in the film.

The LPB documentary moves away from the Audubon story to show Audubon’s influences on ornithology and conservation, then rejoins the historical part of the film.

Wildlife artist Murrell Butler, who lives outside St. Francisville, carries on Audubon’s  bird observations and painting.  Michael Seymour of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the National Audubon Society’s Melanie Driscoll, Keith Ouchley of The Nature Conservancy, Van Remsen and John O’Neill, LSU ornithologists, and the staffs of LSU’s Hill Memorial Library and Natural History Museum lend their expertise and obvious feeling for their subjects to the film.

The documentary gets some additional weight from interviews with Richard Rhodes (“John James Audubon: The Making of an American”) and Christophe Irmscher (“John James Audubon: Writing and Drawings”), two Audubon authorities Heitman interviewed for his book.

Melton, project senior producer, was the film’s main writer, drawing on Heitman’s book to tell the story.

“Danny assisted me in improving the script throughout the entire process,” Melton said. “It’s not easy to translate a book into a film, and Danny was extremely helpful in the production as a resource and in facilitating contacts.”

Heitman, an editorial writer and award-winning columnist for The Advocate, gets a co-writer and associate producer credit on “A Summer of Birds.”

Look for him as a character in the film. He also makes appearances in interviews.

Dan Novak, an assistant professor of English at LSU, is Audubon in the film which is mostly narration and voice over. Jean-Xavier Brager of LSU’s French Department does Audubon’s voice.