Reel Reality Short Slot
Fri Mar 3, 2017 – 2:30 pm | Bagels & More
The Art Of Flying
Directed by Jan van IJken
Short Documentary
Netherlands | 7 min | 2015
Short film about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show.
Because of the relatively warm winter of 2014/2015, the starlings stayed in the Netherlands instead of migrating southwards. This gave filmmaker Jan van IJken the opportunity to film one of the most spectacular and amazing natural phenomena on earth.
Jan van Ijken
Director, Producer, Writer
Jan van IJken (Amersfoort, the Netherlands 1965) is a documentary photographer and filmmaker.
He is specializing in personal photo- and filmprojects.
He published 3 photo books: A touch of Divinity (2001), New Neighbours (2004) and Dierbaar/Precious Animals (2005). His photos were published in numerous international exhibitions, magazines and newspapers.
In the last few years, he produced 3 short films: Facing Animals (2012, 30 min HD Video) about the complex and often bizarre relationship between man and animal and Nevermore (2013, 4 min HD Video) about the fast and instinctive creative process of action painting and The art of flying (2015, 7 min HD Video) about the stunning and mysterious flights of the Common Starling.
