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About HummingbirdFilms

HummingbirdFilms LLC is a leading-edge film and video production company located in the Hudson Valley of New York State. Owned and operated by award-winning independent filmmaker John Feldman, the company is currently focusing its efforts on documentaries in the arts and sciences.

This website contains information about John Feldman’s current productions as well as his complete portfolio of critically acclaimed and award-winning independent feature, educational, documentary and short films from 1968 to the present. On the portfolio page are links to watch many of them.

Works in Progress

The Gaia Perspective

Changing our worldviews with Fritjof Capra and his mentors
(Working Title)

This feature-length documentary turns to Fritjof Capra and his colleagues and mentors in a quest to uncover the cornerstones of a society that allows people to coexist in harmony with each other and with the natural world.

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Why Laugh

Speaking truth to power with clowns, masks, puppets, and banana peels
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Latest News

Visit to Pacific Northwest

Visit to Pacific Northwest

On the drive from Port Townsend to Penticton, we took a hike through Manning Park, British Columbia (photo by John Feldman) In early May, I led a panel of writers and filmmakers at the Global Earth Repair Convergence in Port Townsend, WA. The panel was entitled...

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Lisbon Architecture Triennale screens Regenerating Life

Lisbon Architecture Triennale screens Regenerating Life

From October 3, 2025 through January 4, 2026, Regenerating Life and excerpts from Symbiotic Earth were shown continuously on separate screens as part of the 7th Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Titled How Heavy is the City, the Triennale was made up of three exhibitions...

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Remembering Adam Sacks

Remembering Adam Sacks

On Saturday, March 14, 2026, I attended a memorial for Adam Sacks in Cambridge, MA.  It was entitled “Celebration of Life.” Adam died on February 1, 2026.  Adam Sacks was a most important mentor to me during the entire conception, production, and release...

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New on Youtube

Part of a larger set of piano preludes, Resilient Earth, this prelude was inspired by the Judith Schwartz book, The Reindeer Chronicles. I was moved by her description of herds of animals -- indigenous reindeer in Norway and feral donkeys brought years ago to Australia – being eradicated in masses. The donkeys are shot from helicopters. And in both cases, evidence suggests that the roaming of these animals is actually helpful to the ecosystem. At the time I was composing a set of preludes for piano, Resilient Earth, and I decided to write a prelude describing this horror. In Judith’s book she describes how the Australians capture a wild donkey, put a collar with a radio signal on it, and since these donkeys are highly social it goes out to find a new herd. Helicopters track the donkey and gun down the entire herd leaving only the collared donkey alive to repeat the process. This is called the "Judas" technique. The program for the music is as follows: “Donkeys are grazing, roaming and happy when suddenly they become silent, sensing danger. (About 2/3 into the prelude.) A barrage of gunshots emerges from an overhead helicopter. Horror and chaos ensue. Ultimately, a survivor (the "Judas" donkey, the one with the radio collar) looks around confused and in shock— alone — without the rest of the herd, lost… devastated." Technically donkeys are not ruminants but her book also described massacres of the reindeer and so I used that title. Resilient Earth was premiered at a retrospective exhibit of Mary Frank's art work, The Observing Heart, in 2022 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY. Here's a link to the full concert video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCsIDfd6MtU
YouTube Video VVUzRGM1R3hkb2d0UGJvekpxMlFFbURRLlNTYVRteERDckhJ

Shooting Ruminants. Composer, Sheila Silver. Piano: Ryan MacEvoy McCullough. Art: Mary Frank

How to Translate the Principles of Traditional Diets into Nutritious, Delicious Meals (1 hour 33 minutes) As president of the Weaton A. Price Foundation, Sally Fallon Morell has been on the forefront of mindful eating for more than twenty years. Her powerful book Nourishing Traditions was a call to arms for a dietary revolution. Her book Nourishing Fats supports and expands upon the growing scientific consensus that eating a wide range of good fats is the key to optimum health. On June 29, 2019, Sally Fallon Morell gave a day long workshop at Churchtown Dairy in Hudson NY entitled: Principles of Traditional Diets. It included three important presentations: Traditional Diets, All About Cheese, and The Oiling of America. These three presentations were recorded by Hummingbird Films and are available here.
YouTube Video VVUzRGM1R3hkb2d0UGJvekpxMlFFbURRLnJ3dnBLY2lTYkY4

Nutritious Meals: a presentation by Sally Fallon Morell

Cheesemaking at P. A. Bowen Farmstead (and why you should eat cheese!) a presentation at Churchtown Dairy by Sally Fallon Morell (42 minutes) As president of the Weaton A. Price Foundation, Sally Fallon Morell has been on the forefront of mindful eating for more than twenty years. Her powerful book Nourishing Traditions was a call to arms for a dietary revolution. Her book Nourishing Fats supports and expands upon the growing scientific consensus that eating a wide range of good fats is the key to optimum health. On June 29, 2019, Sally Fallon Morell gave a day long workshop at Churchtown Dairy in Hudson NY entitled: Principles of Traditional Diets. It included three important presentations: Traditional Diets, All About Cheese, and The Oiling of America. These three presentations were recorded by Hummingbird Films and are available here.
YouTube Video VVUzRGM1R3hkb2d0UGJvekpxMlFFbURRLk5CSUlsYUZJb2o4

Cheesemaking at P. A. Bowen Farmstead (and why you should eat cheese!) by Sally Fallon Morell

The Oiling of America (1 hour 38 minutes). In this presentation, Sally Fallon Morell explains why animal fats are vital for fighting infertility and inflammation, improving mood, and relieving chronic disease and allergies. As president of the Weaton A. Price Foundation, Sally Fallon Morell has been on the forefront of mindful eating for more than twenty years. Her powerful book Nourishing Traditions was a call to arms for a dietary revolution. Her book Nourishing Fats supports and expands upon the growing scientific consensus that eating a wide range of good fats is the key to optimum health. On June 29, 2019, Sally Fallon Morell gave a day long workshop at Churchtown Dairy in Hudson NY entitled: Principles of Traditional Diets. It included three important presentations: Traditional Diets, All About Cheese, and The Oiling of America. These three presentations were recorded by Hummingbird Films and are available here.
YouTube Video VVUzRGM1R3hkb2d0UGJvekpxMlFFbURRLjZmMWVqZjMtblZN

The Oiling of America: a presentation by Sally Fallon Morell

In 2020, after I had begun interviews for my documentary about Fritjof Capra and his mentors, COVID abruptly shut down all travel. Not to be deterred, we turned to Zoom in order to continue working on the film. In December 2020, with the help of Alberto Rizzo in Argentina and Gustavo Rodrigues Rocha in Brazil, we videotaped a Zoom conversation between Brother David Steindl-Rast in Argentina, Fritjof Capra in California and myself in upstate New York. Brother David is a renowned scholar and Benedictine monk. He and Fritjof co-authored Belonging to the Universe (winner of the 1992 American Book Award), a dialogue on new paradigm thinking in science and theology. He was 94 when we recorded his conversation with Fritjof, and he impressed me with his warmth and his loving and enthusiastic manner. During our conversation, Brother David noted that at the core of all religions he found the same thing that physicists confronted in quantum physics: an encounter with mystery. --- Learn more about my new documentary, Fritjof Capra: Changing our worldviews with Fritjof Capra and his mentors (working title): https://hummingbirdfilms.com/gaiaperspective Donate to support film production: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/global-film-network-inc/the-gaia-perspective-rethinking-life-love-and-human-folly-with-fritjof-capra-and-his-mentors
YouTube Video VVUzRGM1R3hkb2d0UGJvekpxMlFFbURRLk5WczJSdzZUQVNN

Encounter with Mystery | The Gaia Perspective

The Psyche of Nature (40 sec) Stephan Harding: We need to relate with something bigger than ourselves. Our ego, this little sense of self I've got now, it can feel so isolated and so alone. I mean, so many of us do in Western culture. And depressed, and anxious. It's spreading. More and more people are feeling it, because Western culture cuts you off from a sense of being connected to something larger than the ego, something larger than yourself, which is the psyche of nature, which is the Psyche. --- Learn more about Stephan Harding in our new film, The Gaia Perspective: Changing our worldviews with Fritjof Capra and his mentors (working title). The world is experiencing increasing violence and societal breakdown. How can we respond? This feature-length documentary turns to scientist and author Fritjof Capra and his colleagues and mentors – each a maverick thinker in their field — in a quest to uncover the cornerstones of a society that allows people to coexist in harmony with each other and with the natural world. Donate today to support the production of the film: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/gaiaperspective We are excited to announce that we have received an offer from a generous donor to double every contribution made through the end of October up to a maximum of $10,000. This is the perfect time to make a donation so we can get to work completing the production of The Gaia Perspective!
YouTube Video VVUzRGM1R3hkb2d0UGJvekpxMlFFbURRLm5XOWpyUGNSUEVN

The Psyche of Nature - The Gaia Perspective

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