(Check out Chris Reed’s Wild Inside movie review, will have its world premiere in Central Park on July 29 in partnership with Rooftop Films. It then opens at IFC Center July 31, followed by a nationwide theatrical rollout. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
I have rarely met anyone willing to ask probing questions—personally, professionally, spiritually, etc.—of systems in which they are deeply invested. It’s in most people’s nature to reject close examination of topics cutting close to home. And so it should not surprise if zookeepers and animal handlers find little wrong with a small enclosure for an owl, if that is what they have decided is best for the animal.
Such a topic comes up frequently in Wild Inside, documentarian Penny Lane’s newest film, which tells the tale of Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo in February 2023 and survived on his own in the Big Apple for a little over a year. Notwithstanding that life in a major metropolis poses many risks for a previously caged bird, Flaco evaded would-be captors to remain at large, hunting rats, pigeons, and other small critters as he reveled in newfound freedom. Along the way, Flaco developed a passionate following on social media, New Yorkers from across the city cheering for his success.
Lane (Confessions of a Good Samaritan) interviews a wide array of on-the-ground witnesses, including fellow filmmaker Jeremy Workman (Secret Mall Apartment)—the first to come across Flaco on a Manhattan sidewalk—as well as local birders, owl experts in Missouri and the Netherlands, and others. Some feel as if the zoo was wrong to give up on its pursuit of Flaco after only two weeks, while others see his story holding promise for all creatures kept in tiny cages, which Flaco was for 13 years.
The truth is no doubt more complicated than a simple binary choice, and given how Flaco eventually met his end—flying into a building, his body and mind weakened from both pigeon herpesvirus and rodenticide—it would be easy to simply blame the unknown person who cut the hole in Flaco’s fence for the owl’s death. But Lane, as in all her films, refuses the straightforward path. She asks much more of her audience than just one reaction, to the great benefit of her movie and to the enduring honor of Flaco.
There is so much beautiful footage here, shot by a variety of folks, showing Flaco in the air, on trees, perched atop apartment complexes, and attacking prey. Though he was never meant to exist on our continent, he does his best to survive, clearly preferring his chances among the (somewhat) wide, open expanse of Central Park (and beyond) to the extremely limited universe of his unacceptably restrictive environment in the zoo (which was also right below a very loud clock, no doubt excruciating for the sensitive ears of an owl). However one might feel about what was right for Flaco, seeing him outside is a delight.
Our planet is at a critical crossroads, with the climate ping-ponging from one extreme weather event to another. Watching Wild Inside, we can simultaneously feel that danger and enjoy the wonders of the natural world (before they slip away). It’s a loving and lovely elegy to a soul who soared high while he could. May we all be so lucky before we go.
– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)
