Exit 238
2023 · 11m · USA
Directed by Henry Davis
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, whimsical
At dusk in a strip mall parking lot in Austin, Texas, a filmmaker discovers tens of thousands of migrating Purple Martins roosting overhead — birdwatchers, shoppers, and families converge in spontaneous communal wonder.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A radically patient observational doc that finds the sublime inside a strip mall parking lot — precise, funny, and quietly devastating about what we've done to migratory nature.
Purple martins roosting over an Austin strip mall, no commentary, communal wonder. This is the kind of unforced micro-documentary that either casts a spell or doesn't, and I'm willing to find out.
Tens of thousands of Purple Martins roosting above a Capital Plaza parking lot — Henry Davis places mass wildlife spectacle inside suburban retail architecture and lets the collision generate the entire essay. Wiseman-adjacent observation that resists the easy nature-doc reach for awe.
Festivals
- SXSW 2023