About Judy Irving
Pelican Media Executive Director Judy Irving is a Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker whose theatrical credits include The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a feature documentary about the relationship between a homeless street musician and a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco, Pelican Dreams, about California brown pelicans and the people who know them best, Dark Circle, a personal film about the links between nuclear power and weapons, and Cold Refuge, about how swimming in open water mitigates life's challenges. In 2015 Judy was elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Documentary Branch.
Wild Parrots was a “Top Ten Film of the Year” (National Film Critics’ Poll), was the highest-rated program on the national PBS series “Independent Lens,” and is now in international distribution. Pelican Dreams screened in over 100 theaters and later streamed by Netflix. Dark Circle, which won the Grand Prize at Sundance and a National Emmy, was re-mastered in HD and re-released by First Run Features. Cold Refuge has just begun its flight to festivals and eventual distribution.
Judy spent childhood summers on the North Fork of Long Island, and came to love birds thanks to her grandfather. She graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in Psychology and worked as a freelance journalist in Montreal before hitchhiking across the continent and living on a handmade raft-house in British Columbia. Later, she received her Masters in Film and Broadcasting from Stanford University, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film.
Her documentary film career has taken her to Alaska, Japan, Russia, Nepal, and Zimbabwe, with peace and the environment as her main areas of interest. Somehow, birds seem to show up in every movie. Judy’s six-film documentary series about the San Francisco Bay Area’s wildlife and open space led to her interest in the wild parrot flock flying the city's north waterfront, and her habit of swimming year-round in the Bay led to her most recent documentary, Cold Refuge.
See recent KQED Arts and Culture article about Cold Refuge.
For an overview of Judy's earlier films by film critic Yonca Talu, see NYC's Metrograph Theater.
Selected Awards
2015 Elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: Genesis Award, Outstanding Documentary Feature, Humane Society of the United States; Christopher Award (national humanitarian award); Audience Awards at the Ashland, Maine, and Black Bear Film Festivals; Best Independent Film, International Wildlife Film Festival.
Dark Circle: Grand Prize, Sundance Film Festival; National Emmy Award, “Outstanding Individual Achievement in News &
Documentary;” short-listed for the Oscar (Academy Awards).
Nagasaki Journey: “History’s Best on PBS” (national award)
Guggenheim Fellowship in Film
One-year Fellowship in Film — Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Director’s Internship with Peter Weir.
Recent Projects
Cold Refuge: Documentary feature about swimming in San Francisco Bay -- how full immersion in the natural world helps mitigate some of life's most serious challenges. Official selection, 2023 International Ocean Film Festival. Theatrical premiere, September 2023 at the Roxie Theater. Review by KQED's Michael Fox.
Pelican Dreams: Documentary feature about the tangled destinies of a familiar yet endangered species, the California brown pelican, and the people who know them best. 2014 theatrical release. Producer/Director/Editor.
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: Documentary portrait of Mark Bittner, a Bohemian St. Francis, and his magical relationship with a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco. Two-disc Collector’s Edition DVD release, Fall 2008. Nonfiction feature film, 83 minutes. Producer/Director/Editor.
19 Arrests, No Convictions: Documentary about George Farnsworth, an Italian-American bar owner with a fishy night life, who redeems himself as a San Francisco Bay open-water swimmer. SF Ocean Film Festival Premiere, 2008. Producer/Director/Editor.
Christmas at the Bait Shop, Alameda Wildlife Refuge, Salt Pond Habitat Restoration, and Save the Quail: Short films about people and animals in the Bay Area’s urban habitat. Broadcast on KQED, 2006 to present. Producer/Director/Editor.
Salt Pond Habitat Restoration Archive Project: Decade-long still photography documentation of a major tidal marsh restoration project in South San Francisco Bay, 2004 to 2014. Funded by Resources Legacy Fund Foundation and California Coastal Conservancy. Photographer.
Additional Selected Projects
Dark Circle: Nonfiction feature film about nuclear weapons and power, told by those directly affected. 1983, updated 1991, New Yorker Films. Broadcast on PBS prime-time network series, "P.O.V.," won National Emmy, short-listed for the Oscar. 2008 re-release on DVD by New Video (Docurama). Distributed worldwide in seven languages. “Completely riveting,” Roger Ebert. Producer/Director/Writer/Narrator.
After the Storm: Bob Walker and the Art of Environmental Photography: Traveling photography exhibition and film. San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, Oakland Museum of California, other venues. 2000-2002. Co-Curator.
Kids by the Bay, San Pablo Baylands, & Partners on the Land: Documentaries on wetlands, wildlife, and habitat restoration in the Bay and Delta, including a Nature Conservancy project at the Cosumnes River. 1999 San Francisco Film Festival Golden Gate Award, broadcast on KQED. Writer/Producer/Director.
Nagasaki Journey: International photography exhibit, 128-page book, and half-hour film produced for the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb. Simultaneous gallery openings in New York, San Francisco, and Nagasaki, 1995. Film broadcast on NHK (Japan), BBC (Britain), & national PBS. “Some of the most powerful images ever made,” Carol Squiers, New York Times. Producer/Director.
Out of the Way Cafe: Hour-long drama about Mae the Waitress and her two suitors, in a cafe that time didn't quite forget. Swedish television, 1999 PBS broadcast. Special Jury Prize, Uppsala Film Festival. Producer/Director.
Quiet Revolution: Six-part national PBS series on sustainable development in rural areas. Half-hour segments shot in Nepal, Zimbabwe, and Arkansas. 1995. Earthwatch Environmental Film Festival Award. Director.
Roger and Me: Nonfiction comedy feature about how General Motors built and destroyed Flint, Michigan. New York Film Festival, Warner Brothers theatrical release, 1991. Directed by Michael Moore. Camera/Sound/Editorial Consulting.
Secrets of the Bay & Treasures of the Greenbelt: Companion films on San Francisco Bay Area wildlife and countryside, broadcast on KQED-TV and other PBS stations. 1990 & 1987. Partially funded by the San Francisco Foundation. Toured the Bay Area with three other Irving-produced environmental films as Traveling Environmental Film Festival, 1999—2001. Producer/Director/Writer.
Books/Articles/Still Photography/Podcast
'Wild Parrots' Filmmaker Surfaces With Heartwarming 'Cold Refuge'
KQED Arts and Culture feature article April 14, 2023. Subject.
How wild parrots beat sea lions in a race to be San Francisco's mascot
Washington Post feature article April 5, 2023. Subject.
Secrets of the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
SF Chronicle "Total SF" podcast March 24, 2023. Subject.
Independent Filmmaker Zooms in on Pelicans
Feature article with photographs about Irving's newest documentary film, Pelican Dreams. San Francisco Chronicle, September 17, 2014. Subject.
Flock Update,The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Feature article with photographs, Bird Talk Magazine, December 2008. Writer/Photographer.
Filmmaking Without a Net
Feature article about Irving's career as a documentary filmmaker, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, January 13, 2008 issue. Subject.
Nagasaki Journey
128-page hardback photo book (Pomegranate Artbooks), to accompany the international photo exhibition. 1995. Associate Editor.
Running Away
Essay for Sun Magazine about an African guide and a white tourist in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. 1994. Writer.
Rio Mazan
British expedition to unexplored cloud forest in Ecuadorian Andes, 1987. Still Photographer.
Earthwatch Magazine
Feature article on maternal/child nutrition project in rural Zimbabwe, 1986. Writer/Photographer.
Mademoiselle Magazine
Weekend Magazine, Montreal Star—Feature writer and photographer; stringer for Time Magazine, 1969-73.
Theater
Soapy Lives: Theatrical drama about the infamous Klondike Gold Rush character, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, playing each summer in Skagway, Alaska, 1973 to present. Writer/Director.
Out of the Way, Trip Without a Ticket: Original oral-history-based dramas produced by Tale Spinners Theatre Company, San Francisco. 1988-89. Director.
Education, etc.
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M. A., Stanford University, Film & Broadcasting, 1973; B. A., Connecticut College, Psychology; Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, 1968.
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Writing Fellowships: MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, Squaw Valley Screenwriters’ Workshop.
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Guest Lecturer: U. C. Berkeley, Connecticut College, Stanford University, SF City College, SF State University, etc.
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Nutcase: Year-round San Francisco Bay swimmer.
