Watch: Sally Aitken’s 'Every Little Thing' Heals More Than Just Hummingbirds
Be sure to watch our interview with Sally Aitken after the article.
It is often said that hummingbirds are miracles of nature. From their delicate physique to their technicolor feathers and their unparalleled flight patterns, everything about the hummingbird is otherworldly. Sally Aitken’s documentary Every Little Thing magnifies the magic of the tiny hummingbird through a story about their rehabilitation. We sat down with Aitken to chat about her film, a cinematic balm at a time when we could all use a little healing.
When asked how she found herself documenting such a niche subject, Aitken said, “I gravitate to things that are unique.” And what’s more unique than professional physical therapy for hummingbirds?
Every Little Thing follows the work of Terry Masear, an author and former UCLA professor who runs a hummingbird rehabilitation center in Hollywood. Each year, Masear receives upwards of 5,000 calls during hummingbird season (typically early spring through summer in LA), each one from a good samaritan reporting an injured or lost hummingbird. The process begins with Masear troubleshooting over the phone and often ends with her taking the bird in question into her care for some hands-on rehab and TLC.
Inspired by Masear’s book Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood, Aitken’s documentary is an intimate look at both Masear’s rehabilitation work and Masear herself, who’s had to mend a few wounds of her own, from her childhood trauma to the loss of her beloved husband. Observing Masear in action, we see that she possesses a remarkable combination of traits ideal for nursing hummingbirds: a calming presence, a natural instinct for nurture, and a thick skin required in her line of work. (The downside of having extremely lovable patients is the inevitability that not all of them will make it.)
Masear pours her heart into every bird she takes in, but ultimately she sees each one as a lesson in acceptance. “Caring for wildlife means you need to be comfortable with failure or loss,” she says. “But if you do it right, they fly away in the end.”
The beating hearts of the film are of course the birds themselves. There’s Jimmy, a relentless flyer and “maniac,” as Masear lovingly calls him; Mikhail and Alexa, a pair of star-crossed lovers; and Cactus, who was found pierced with cactus needles—you don't know what it's like to truly root for something until you've met Cactus. For Aitken, each bird represents something any human can relate to: love, loss, rebellion. By following each bird’s individual story, Aitken hopes that the film can act as a “mirror” and viewers can see themselves in their struggles, triumphs, and, most importantly, their resilience. A fan once told her, “Hummingbirds are messengers of the resilience that we have within us.”
On a technical level, Aitken worked with cinematographer Ann Johnson Prum, an expert in filming hummingbirds, to showcase the otherworldly beauty of their subjects by slowing down their 10-to-80-per-second wing flap to linger on every detail with pristine precision—iridescent hues, drone-like movements, tiny tongues sneaking out of needle-like beaks. These interstitial moments of pure aesthetic delight not only give the film a sumptuous texture, but they are also visual reminders of the miraculous nature of the hummingbird.
If you need further proof, consider the timing of Every Little Thing’s release in January, amid some of the worst wildfires in Los Angeles’s history. A story of resilience and healing set against the lush backdrop of the Hollywood Hills could not have come at a more needed time. “If you can find [hope] in something as tiny as a hummingbird,” Aitken says, “it means you can find it everywhere.”
Every Little Thing is now streaming on Kino Film Collection. You can support Terry Massear's rehabilitation work on her website.
Watch our interview with Sally Aitken below.