Rating: NR | Runtime: 93 minutes
Release Date: October 18th, 2024 (UK) / January 10th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Kino Lorber
Director(s): Sally Aitken
Writer(s): Sally Aitken / Terry Masear (book Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood)

Hummingbirds live in the moment. They live for now.

As all the radio broadcasts allude to at the start of Sally Aitken’s Every Little Thing: people really love hummingbirds. They’re a legitimate sight to see floating in the air with wings flapping so fast that you can barely clock they exist. To think a bird that small can survive in one place let alone through a migration is wild, so it shouldn’t be surprising to learn many do struggle to make it that far. It’s why Terry Masear proves such an inspiring and compassionate force in the Los Angeles area. Whenever someone finds an abandoned nestling or injured hummingbird, all they must do is call Terry and she’ll provide her expertise and rehab clinic to give each a fighting chance.

The film follows these endeavors with phone correspondence assisting in capture and transportation tips, testimonials from some finders, and the weeks-long process of getting her current stable of birds back into the air. While the whole proves a great feel-good story, however, it’s not without its tragic results considering Terry isn’t a magician. She knows pretty much upon arrival which patients will make it, but keeps that truth close to her vest so as not to disappoint their potential saviors before sending them home. Because it’s not an exact science. Eighteen years doing this work merely supplies her a feel for not getting too close to those with a more arduous road ahead. It also makes the ones who beat the odds seem like little miracles.

So, expect a couple bodies to get buried along the way. Expect some displays of human trauma as well once Terry starts delving into her own journey to mirror the experiences her hummingbirds must endure as living creatures in an increasingly cruel and selfish world. Because we don’t get a ton of detail beyond its context towards this career path, Every Little Thing is definitely more about the birds than Terry herself. She plays a role in their survival and in injecting some empathy into the community too as far as letting people know they can put their position on the animal food chain to use for creatures that cannot always help themselves. And now we know sugar water is for feeding, not bathing.

The highlight for many will be the extensive slow-motion footage of hummingbirds in their element. It often looks fake because of how impossible the steady-cam nature of their bodies are while their wings flap away. We watch them licking water and bugs from flowers, staring into the camera, and even engaging in some fisticuffs to make good on Terry calling them warriors. And all the while she nurses Cactus, Jimmy, The Wild Boys, and others back to health with precise programs meant to let them regain strength, learn how to fly, and grow accustomed to living outside their cages. We ultimately begin to push for their success as hard as she does, crossing our fingers that setbacks aren’t too large to overcome and progress isn’t too slow to get them back under the sun.

---

Terry Masear in EVERY LITTLE THING; courtesy of Kino Lorber.