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This Beautiful Short Documentary Tells the Story of DeKalb Avenue’s Pigeons & Their Resilient Keeper

Meet Gil, a lifelong homing pigeon enthusiast who had kept his beloved pets on the same rooftop for 27 years and who is currently rebuilding his flock.

This Beautiful Short Documentary Tells the Story of DeKalb Avenue’s Pigeons & Their Resilient Keeper
Gil on the roof. Film Still courtesy of Christian Carroll.

This Beautiful Short Documentary Tells the Story of DeKalb Avenue’s Pigeons & Their Resilient Keeper

Meet Gil, a lifelong homing pigeon enthusiast who had kept his beloved pets on the same rooftop for 27 years and who is currently rebuilding his flock.

This Beautiful Short Documentary Tells the Story of DeKalb Avenue’s Pigeons & Their Resilient Keeper

Among the many heartbreaking stories of loss that we heard in the wake of last year’s devastating blaze on DeKalb Avenue was the tale of the deaths of 500 homing pigeons who had lived on the roof of one of the buildings on the block. This week, we heard from local filmmaker Christian Carroll, who shared with us a sweet film about the birds and their owner, his neighbor Gil.

In the film, which is titled “Bird Freak” and is under five minutes long, Carroll weaves his archive of footage of the pigeons in flight (shot from his own roof…

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