[yasr_overall_rating]
“Chicken People” is a funny and uplifting look at the world of show chickens and the people who love them.
At the outset, “Chicken People” could be perceived as a documentary that pokes fun at those who raise chickens with the sole intent of winning national poultry competitions, such as the largest in the nation, the Ohio National Poultry Show. Comparable to the Westminster Dog Show, it is taken very seriously by all who compete and is no laughing matter.
The film focuses on three central characters; Brian Knox, a successful engineer of high performance race engines, Shari McCollough, a homemaker, and Brian Caraker, a musical theater star. The movie follows each person, giving its audience more than enough time to get to know them individually, including their backgrounds, aspirations, and family life. Director Nicole Lucas Haimes wisely infuses the film with funny anecdotes from each character, letting us know that while they take their jobs very seriously, at the same time, they understand the ridiculousness of their situations. Having said that however, each of them also opens up about difficult times from their past, including bullying and alcoholism. In the film’s brief 83 minute run time, we get to know so much about these people’s lives that by the end of the movie, we are left yearning for more.
There are literally hundreds of different chicken breeds around the world. Even though we have backyard chickens and ducks of our own, they serve no other purpose than to give us a fresh supply of daily eggs. Watching each participant groom and clean their prize chickens, the way a dog or cat owner might, gives you pause for thought and you realize that this is indeed, a very serious business.
The film gives us permission to take a small glimpse inside these people’s lives, and as a result of their brutal honesty and candor, it gives it the heart and soul it might not have otherwise attained. We watch over the course of a year, the three competitors work their magic, trying to produce the best chicken in show but also the challenges each of them faces in their everyday lives, and by the time we reach the 2015 Knoxville Dixie Classic, we don’t want just one of them to win, we want them all to win. In a documentary fraught with opposition and competitiveness, it is very rare that you find yourself campaigning for every side. Kudos Nicole Lucas Haimes, for achieving the impossible.
Available on DVD Tuesday, November 22nd
