From Emmy-nominated director Sally Aitken, Every Little Thing is a documentary following the journey of specialist hummingbird rehabilitator Terry Masear as she attempts her goal to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles.
The sweet documentary had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was also screened at the SXSW Festival, the 2nd DC/DOX Film Festival, and the 29th Nantucket Film Festival where it won the The Adrienne Shelly Foundation Excellence in Filmmaking Award.
Release Date
Directed by Sally Aitken, Every Little Thing opens in select New York theaters (IFC Center) on January 10, 2025, and in Los Angeles (Laemmle’s Monica Film Center) on January 17, 2025.
Synopsis
Author and rehabber Terry Masear wants to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles. Terry takes in the most fragile of patients through her volunteer hummingbird rescue, but the path to survival is fraught with uncertainty and drama. Over the course of Sally Aitken’s intimate and moving documentary, we become invested in Terry’s hummingbird patients – including Cactus, Jimmy, Wasabi, Raisin, and Mikhail – celebrating their small victories and lamenting their tiny tragedies. Through the eyes of America’s busiest bird rehabilitator, each bird becomes memorable, mighty and heroic. As she nurtures the wounded hummingbirds back to health, Terry finds herself on her own transformative journey, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness.
“Every Little Thing invites an audience to experience a connection that goes beyond the ordinary. The hummingbirds are symbols of the delicate balance we all navigate, reminding us of the beauty found in both our vulnerabilities and our ability to rise above adversity,” says director Sally Aitken in the director’s statement. “I hope in watching this film, viewers experience a surprising way totranscend mundane boundaries. I hope people see that the indefinable beauty of hummingbirds is a mirror reflecting the complexity and wonder of the human experience, where, as Einstein says, either nothing is a miracle, or everything is.”
Reviews
Kate Erbland in an IndieWire review gave the film a B+, writing, “It’s loosely arranged through one caring cycle of birds, from intake to release, but Every Little Thing works it way toward a deeply satisfying conclusion, a big celebration of tiny things and the special person who has made it all possible.”
Sherry Linden in a Hollywood Reporter review also praised the film, writing, “The way Aitken and her ace team have made a handful of these birds, each a few inches long and weighing a couple of grams, into compelling screen characters is, well, no small thing.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for Every Little Thing.