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HOT DOCS 2022

Review: Million Dollar Pigeons

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- Irish documentary director Gavin Fitzgerald's engaging film looks at the increasingly prestigious world of pigeon racing, but lacks clarity and fails to reveal many issues

Review: Million Dollar Pigeons

After making two extremely successful biopics on Conor McGregor and Liam Gallagher, Irish director Gavin Fitzgerald returns with a globe-trotting documentary on pigeon racing, Million Dollar Pigeons, which has just world-premiered at Hot Docs.

Once a niche sport, which originated in Belgium in the 1810s, pigeon racing has become so prestigious and expensive that a bird can now fetch a price of $2 million, and Fitzgerald makes the most of this improbable development. One of the key factors was the South African Million Dollar Race, established in 1996. By 2020, their prize fund had gone up to $1.4 million, with the entry fee for one pigeon costing $1,000. Big prizes attract rich people, and the racing scene is growing, with rival events popping up at Victoria Lake, and in Pattaya, Thailand, where the final act of the film takes place.

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But pigeons are not just a rich man's passion, and one of the film's heroes is John O'Brien, a thirty-something father of two from Dublin. His little pigeon club is mostly populated by older men – it's an old-school sport, as one of them says. But now, with more money coming into it, young people are starting to sit up and take notice. John and his club are scraping together money to send four pigeons to South Africa. There they would be quarantined and trained for the race.

On the other side of the world is Mike Ganus from Indiana, USA, who enters anywhere between 50 and 100 pigeons into the race. Ganus loves bragging (although he denies he's doing so), and he has bought eight out of the last nine winners of the race. Fitzgerald initially frames the story as a David-and-Goliath battle, but there is a whole spectrum of pigeon fanciers from all over the world and all walks of life who are interviewed in the film, including the grandson of the owner of the first Belgian company that started auctioning the birds online.

The South African race runs into a never fully explained problem in 2020, stemming from an overlong distance and bad weather, which left many participants with neither their pigeons nor their money. The award ceremony sees the previously arrogant boss Sara Blackshaw squirm and stutter.

The film establishes a light, humorous tone and is quite engaging. The pigeon fanciers are all spirited, flesh-and-blood characters, and the choice of O'Brien, a likeable man who is not afraid to dream, as the emotional anchor was the right move. But many things remain unrevealed or unclear, including exactly how the racing works – a problem for a sporting film about a little-known activity.

Pigeon racing has been heavily criticised by animal rights organisations for decades, which is only glossed over in the film, even though we realise that a multitude of pigeons died in quarantine for the South African event. We see that most fanciers who are not wealthy lose money, but the fact that the race itself has been marred by illegal gambling and money laundering is never dealt with, except for a brief mention of corruption.

No 90-minute film can cover a topic in its entirety, but these are conspicuous omissions. If pigeon racing was a niche sport for centuries and only came to prominence – and had a major documentary made about it – after big money came in, they are certainly pertinent to the topic. The way the film has it, the only villain seems to be Blackshaw.

Million Dollar Pigeons is a production by Ireland's Venom Films Productions, in association with RTÉ Raidió Teilifís and in co-production with ZDF/ARTE and NHK. London-based Dogwoof has the international rights.

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