Ajax the Kea Conservation Dog
2017 · 3m · New Zealand
Directed by Michael Weatherall
Genres: adventure, documentary, family
Tones: contemplative, tender
Conservationist Corey and his detection dog Ajax search remote country for the world's only alpine parrot, the kea.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects a feel-good doc about a conservation hero and his dog—and that's exactly what you get, which is precisely why it doesn't work as anything more than a competent nature video.
A sincere entry in the observational wildlife documentary tradition, competently shot and emotionally straightforward, though it lacks the formal innovation or narrative complexity that would distinguish it from countless similar efforts.
The intimacy lives entirely in how Weatherall frames the quiet moment between Corey and Ajax in difficult terrain—a single cut that lets you feel the partnership rather than be told about it, and that restraint is what makes this three minutes matter.