Odd Bird
2019 · 9m · USA
Directed by Katy Dore
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: melancholic, tender
A 19-year-old named Clark, who coped with feeling like an outsider in his conservative ranch family by drawing a comic book called 'The Adventures of Odd Bird,' returns home to retrieve the manuscript for a publisher — and to come out to his mother.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The comic-book framing device could've been a gimmick, but Dore resists the urge to make it cute or explanatory—it stays oblique, which is exactly where coming-of-age stories get interesting when they stop trying so hard to be relatable.
Dore demonstrates precise control of tone across registers, layering the hand-drawn vulnerability of Clark's comic against the austere ranch setting with the kind of formal restraint that recalls the best of contemporary queer cinema.
The decision to filter the coming-out conversation through actual comic-panel excerpts—rather than dialogue—is what makes this work; it gives Clark a language that feels earned, and it's the kind of small technical choice that transforms a familiar story into something that breathes differently.
Reviews
Cute, with a sweet message.
Director Katy Dore uses her filmmaking to shed awareness, understanding, and love about the LGBTQ+ community.
Festivals
- Stage 32 Short Film Awards 2019, Best Short / Best Director / LGBTQ+ / Audience Choice
- Utah Film Festival 2019
- Cambria Film Festival 2021