Sally Aitken is shining a light on an under-explored, but important, natural subject in Every Little Thing. Having gotten her start behind the camera with the PBS period miniseries Colonial House, Aitken has helmed both narrative and documentary projects throughout her career, though has largely been focused on the latter genre, ranging from Getting Frank Gehry to Disney+’s Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story. Some of her most recent efforts include the Chris Hemsworth-hosted Shark Beach, Australia’s Inconceivable – The Secret Business of Breeding Human and H๏τ Potato: The Story of the Wiggles.

Every Little Thing sees Aitken continuing her documentary streak and turning her focus to Terry Masear, an author and wildlife rehabber living in Los Angeles. Inspired by her book, Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood, the movie explores Masear’s efforts to save every injured hummingbird in the California city, showcasing some of the methods she uses to help nurse and rehabilitate many of them. Every Little Thing also takes a look back at Masear’s life and what inspired her to dedicate her life to the specific nature preservation.

Composed of interviews with Masear, as well as footage of her work with a selection of birds and the people who bring them to her for help, Every Little Thing proves to be both a charming and emotional journey. The movie already made its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it garnered widespread acclaim and currently holds a 94% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

In honor of the movie’s upcoming wide release, ScreenRant interviewed Sally Aitken to discuss Every Little Thing, what drew her to want to tell Masear’s story and her efforts on screen, the curious nature of the hummingbirds and how she went about trying to capture the “poetic dance” of their movements, as well as the interesting road she took to land on Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” being the closing note of the film.

Aitken Almost Didn’t Think There Would Be Enough Of A Story For A Feature-Length Documentary

It Wasn’t Until She Read Masear’s Book That She Saw A “Metaphoric Opportunity”

ScreenRant: Sally, it is great to get to chat with you and to talk about Every Little Thing. I watched it yesterday, and I was so moved by it. It’s such a sweet film, but also a very emotional one at times. When did you first learn about Terry Masear, and what drew you to want to help bring her story to the screen?

Sally Aitken: What a great question, because yeah, the idea of someone who dedicates their time to running a H๏τline for hummingbirds was kind of like, “Oh, that’s weird, that’s unusual, that’s quirky.” So, I was sort of drawn in by that as an idea, and I’d been sent the review of Terry’s book — I think it was in the LA Times or Chicago Tribune or something — and it was just the review of Terry’s book, “Fastest Things on Wings.” And I thought, “Okay, this woman, sounds really interesting,” but I wasn’t really that convinced that it would make for a long-form, cinematic feature documentary.

But after reading the book and realizing that there was a grand, kind of metaphoric opportunity to see the birds the way that Terry sees them, these tiny, magical creatures who are all broken in some way, this grand metaphor for the human fragility, and that there was a journey to be had that was a healing one that shone a light on humanity in some curious way. And that it was set in Los Angeles, this mythic cinema city that’s been seen in all these incredible films, but never through the eyes of the hummingbird. So, I thought all of those things were really captivating and potentially highly cinematic. And the birds themselves, I mean, they’re beautiful to look at and to film. So yeah, that was the beginning of the journey, and it’s been a privilege to make this film.

Building A Trust With Masear Proved To Be “A Privilege” For Aitken

“It’s an unusual relationship, the idea of somebody allowing themselves to be filmed…”

So, I’ll talk about the birds in a second, but I’d love to dive deeper into talking with Terry. As you know, in all these interviews, as a doctor, as a documentarian, you really have to build that trust to let them be vulnerable on camera. What was it like finding that with Terry, that connection and that trust?

Sally Aitken: She’s incredible and extremely cerebral. So we initially connected, very friendly and empathetically, but also very intellectually. I loved the way she is so well-read. She has four degrees, and one of them is English literature, and there’s a Charles Bukowski quote every five seconds, you know, she’s amazing! [Chuckles] So, I think initially it was this sort of ideas fest, and allowing ourselves to have this relationship. It’s an unusual relationship, the idea of somebody allowing themselves to be filmed, and the person filming them, and there’s something in that exchange that is, if you allow it to be, deeply honest.

But you have to enter it in a way that, I believe, is incredibly transparent, so I’m always very front forward about, “This is what I hope. This is what I don’t know.” It’s not like you’re some sort of Wizard of Oz character behind the scenes, and you’ve got all the answers. You don’t, at all. If you are open to the actual documentary journey, which is allowing life to unfold on camera, it’s profound, but you have to be up for it, shall we say. And Terry, as she says, does not trust easily. So, it was a process of forming a relationship of trust, and I believe the only way you can do that is when you exchange and when you share things, and when you prove yourself to be trustworthy.

All of those things take time, and those things take faith, in a way, in the other human. So, yeah, it’s an exchange, and I did not go into the film knowing anything, really, about Terry’s personal story. I just thought initially, “Oh, this is really curious. This is weird, this is fun, this will be funny.” And I wasn’t prepared for the epic, I suppose, philosophy that filming with Terry enabled, and what a privilege.

So, I did want to touch on that, as well, because I do love that this film is as much about her as it is about her efforts to help all these hummingbirds. From the writing and directorial side of a documentary, when in the process did you realize you wanted to find that balance between exploring her life as much as exploring what she does for the birds?

Sally Aitken: Yeah, I think that it’s an inevitable question. Once you allow yourself, as the viewer, to go into this world, and hopefully you’re captivated by the curiosity of, you know, “What is she doing there”, and, “How are these birds in her care?” Once you enter that space, of course, inevitably, it will be like, “Well, who does it? Who does that and why?” So I always knew that that was a question, and interestingly enough, I asked her. I said, “Why did you do this?” And she couldn’t answer it, actually, she said, “I don’t know.”

And it was only through the process of spending time and starting to share, and then she revealed her personal story, and often, when someone is interviewed, it can be a very empowering thing. It can also make you feel very vulnerable. She said to me afterwards, “Yeah, it’s more about the birds, isn’t it? You’re not really going to use all of that, it’s not that interesting, is it?” I said, “Yeah, I think it’s pretty important actually, Terry, I think that might be it.” [Laughs] And I think, in some ways, it was a revelation to her, as much as it was part of the revelation in the film of connecting the dots through her life of why someone might be compelled to do this work, but it’s obviously at a very subconscious, subterranean level.

And it’s only through the filmmaking process, perhaps, that those things can kind of come to the surface in a way that’s unexpected and beautiful, and I think that we were very conscious — or, I tried not to be didactic in the film. I tried not to be consequential. It’s a film that is supposed to be an invitation, and you’re supposed to be engaged with the film and draw your own conclusions, and hopefully that makes for an engaging experience.

Aitken Was Floored By The Amount Of Opportunities She Had To Capture The Birds’ “Poetic” Nature

“…it’s magical…”

Now, we can’t talk about this movie without talking about the birds, what incredible creatures. You’re obviously no stranger to filming in the nature documentary sphere, but can you talk me through the process of some of these filming sequences, maybe beginning with the training sequences?

Sally Aitken: Yeah, it’s funny, because I love these stories about our natural world, but I don’t consider myself a natural history filmmaker. I like filming the human condition, actually, I just happen to have settled into finding it through our engagement with other creatures. But when she said, “I have physiotherapy for the birds,” and then she presented — you see it in the film — what looks like a wooden dumbbell. And I, in my head, was like, “It’s a weightlifting bar for us, this is their physiotherapy.” I was so charmed by all of these [mini-instruments], it’s like the accoutrement of her rehabilitation.

They were profound to me, and I said to the cinematographer, “We need to film these things in macrolens, really shallow depth of field.” He’s like, “It’s a stick.” I was like, “I know, it’s a magic stick, though.” [Laughs] So, the filming was necessarily close, we knew that it needed to have macrolensing to be seeing the birds’ world in a way that you wouldn’t otherwise see with the human eye. And the beauty of filmmaking is that you have these tools where you can do that. So, the scene that you’re referring to is one of her many ways in which she tries, like any good therapist does, to get the bird to work on itself.

And it’s a therapy scene, or a flight training scene, in which she is raising and lowering her bar on which the bird sits, and that’s a way to enable the bird to feel the rush of the falling motion, meaning that they might lift their wing, meaning that the wing itself gets stronger, and that the bird is on its journey to rehabilitation. So, this was a revelation to me, the idea that time and patience and care, and she has all sorts of tricks, shall we say. You see in the film, she makes these syringes, and they have a kind of protein mix as well as the sweetness of the nectar. She makes them so that the bird has to reach for them. It’s, again, a strengthening.

Every single thing has a reason. There’s handmade — it kills me — crocheted nests for these hummingbirds. Can you imagine such a sweet thing? And around the edge of the crochet nest, there’s a little bit of electrical wire so that they can learn to perch, because it’s the right size, the right gauge, if you like, for their tiny, tiny [feet]. I was obsessed with their feet for a while. I was like, “Oh, my God, that’s so cute!” Seeing them hang on, because these creatures are literally smaller than your finger. I mean, they’re tiny, so yeah, we filmed everything really close. Sorry. I’ve really diverted away from your question. [Chuckles]

We filmed everything really close, and we also filmed with aerial cinematography drone cameras, because I loved the idea of having that contrast between the otherworldly, microscopic world of the birds and this wide view, which is literally a bird’s eye view of their home, in this case, California. And then, the high-speed pH๏τography was something that we knew early on would be an opportunity to really slow down what is an otherwise incredibly rapid flight. But it’s magical, so when you see it slowed down, it takes on this kind of poetic dance.

And Tania, my editor and great compatriot, was just so honoring of all of those filmic intentions that managed to sтιтch it in a way that they all elevate the other. It’s not like the whole film is slo-mo, it’s not like the whole film is archival texture. It’s this knitted together combination of those elements that hopefully allows each element to feel important.

Every Little Thing‘s Bob Marley Inclusions Came Very Late In The Process

“…we actually, for a long time, didn’t know what the film should be called.”

I think I’m coming close to time, so I did want to ask really quickly. I grew up a huge Bob Marley fan, so “Three Little Birds” ending the documentary, beyond just the name, felt like the appropriate vibe for this kind of documentary. How did you land on that being the closing note, along with the footage of the birds all on that water structure?

Sally Aitken: Isn’t it amazing, when something feels so inevitable, you’re like, “Of course!” But we actually, for a long time, didn’t know what the film should be called. I danced around with different ideas, thinking how there’s some bird characters, as you will have seen in the film, and you know that each have really captivating names, like Cactus, and The Wild Boys. So, for a while, I thought the film should be called Terry and The Wild Boys.

That’d be a really fun тιтle, and it was actually one of our producing partners, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Sean B. Carroll, who’s no longer there, who had suggested that track. And we were like, “Oh, that’s genius. It’s so good!” So yeah, once that was in as an idea, it was then finding the right place for it. Initially, I actually thought the film might have a lot of commercial music within the film, because it’s Hollywood, and because it’s Los Angeles, and I thought, “Oh, that’s really fun.”

We could be very playful with different finders, and have different music tracks that would be very emblematic of each person’s personality. And we just stripped the film right back, and I worked with a long-time collaborator of mine, Caitlin Yeo, a beautiful composer from Australia, female composer. We’d have these great conversations, Caitlin and I, in which she lets me talk for ages, and then she somehow transcribes and consolidates down the ideas.

And she’s like, “Is this what you’re reaching for?” And I’m like, “Exactly, that’s exactly what I’m reaching for.” [Chuckles] So, she had gravitated to the flight and the bird’s wings as an idea, and she knew that she wanted violins to be in the score. I think her score is sublime. So, yeah, “Three Little Birds” is the perfect end note, and the film opens with another classic Californian track, “It Never Rains in Southern California,” and the rest of it is Caitlin.

About Every Little Thing

Author and wildlife rehabber Terry Masear has an ambitious goal: to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles. But the path to survival is fraught with danger. This heart-expanding Sundance hit introduces audiences to Terry’s diminutive patients through breathtaking slow-motion pH๏τography and emotional storytelling. Over the course of director Sally Aitken’s moving documentary, we become deeply invested in hummingbirds like Cactus, Jimmy, Raisin, and Wasabi, celebrating their tiny victories and lamenting their tragedies. Through Terry’s eyes, each bird becomes memorable, mighty and heroic. Her compᴀssion and empathy serves as a reminder that grace can be found in the smallest of acts and the tiniest of creatures.

Source: ScreenRant Plus