New York Wild Film Festival Features Birds-of-Paradise Project

On Saturday, January 25, the New York Wild Film Festival will screen “Paradise Found”—a 12-minute short film drawn from footage recorded during the Birds-of-Paradise Project.

The festival has named Paradise Found its Best Exploration Film. The screening anchors the festival’s Saturday afternoon session (2:00 to 5:30) and will be followed by a question-and-answer forum with the Birds-of-Paradise Project’s Ed Scholes and Tim Laman. The session will be moderated by National Geographic Emerging Explorer Kenny Broad.

The film was produced by the Cornell Lab’s Tom Swartwout as part of the Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution exhibit that premiered in 2012 at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., and went on to tour the country. It compiles some of the most stunning footage developed over the course of 8 years and 18 expeditions in the field. To whet your appetite, here’s an introductory video, which itself contains some pretty mind-boggling footage:

For much more of these fantastic, beautiful, silly creatures—and expert commentary on their evolution, anatomy, behavior, and voices—we invite you to explore the full 2.5 hours of video contained in our free Birds-of-Paradise Project website. You can also follow the project on Facebook.

For more information about the other films in the festival, plus schedules and tickets, visit the New York Wild Film Festival website.