Regarding bird watcher fanatics: Woodpecker playing at the Halsey

The setting is this: Fanatical birdwatchers have descended upon a small town in the Arkansas bayou in hopes of finding the ivory-billed woodpecker.

It's a story told by filmmaker Alex Karpovsky in the 4th film of the Southern Circuit film series, "Woodpecker," is coming to the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art on February 4.

Declared extinct in the 1940s, the bird has apparently been spotted by numerous experts. Enter amateur birder, Johnny Neander, convinced 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” manipulates our notions of documentary and narrative techniques within a tragic comedy about hope, perception and some very strange birds. 

72 The film screening and Q & A session with the filmmaker will take place at 8 p.m. in room 309 of the Simons Center for the Arts on 54 St. Philip Street. Free.

The 5th and 6th films of the series will screen on the first Friday of March and April. Those are, respectively, Southern Stories and Scrappers.

More info:

Alex Karpovsky has been selected as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by “Filmmaker Magazine.” A formidable actor, in the past year Alex played the voices of several Russian gangsters in Grand Theft Auto IV. Alex's newest film, “Trust Us, This Is All Made Up,” premiered at the SXSW film festival this past March.   

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers brings independent filmmakers and their films into communities throughout the nine-state region served by South Arts, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975. South Arts is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on South Arts and its programs visit www.southarts.org.
 
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art exists to advocate, exhibit and interpret visual art, with an emphasis on contemporary art by producing & presenting exhibitions, lectures, film series, artist-in-residence programs, publications and a comprehensive website.