Title: Birders: The Central Park Effect
Director: Jeffrey Kimball
Producer: OTHER NOISES PRODUCTION
Music composer: Paul Damian Hogan
Editor: Daniel Baer
Length: 60 minutes
Country: USA
Media: HBO Documentary Films
Premier show date: Monday, July 16, 2012 at 9pm and it will be shown for 6 months or more
DVD release: by the end of this year

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Don’t blame me, but I just have to show off a little: I’ve finally made it to the “media major league“! I’ll be appearing this Monday at 9 pm on HBO Documentary Films. It’s my for the first time on a major cable channel. I’ll be appearing in the documentary Birders: The Central Park Effect, a little more than six minutes into the film.

As you may know, I’m not only the editor of DooBeeDoo, but also a musician 24/7. Music is my first tool of expression and DooBeeDoo is an extension of that. As a musician I love to play anywhere and any time. And the best place for me to play is here in New York. In no other city are my horn and my music so appreciated.

In 2009 I was playing at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, when Jeffrey Kimball was shooting in the park. Apparently, while he was filming he could hear me from far away. He liked the sound of my horn and followed it. Eventually he found me. When he saw me playing he asked for permission to shoot me. So I just played “something” that I improvised on the spot. Instead of playing a song, I played an emotion. Later, when Jeffrey showed me my performance, I was surprised to see a different Sohrab than the one I know. I couldn’t recognize my sound and playing: it was me but not me. Why? Because I sounded so jazzy, and I don’t consider myself a jazz musician. Nevertheless, I like the way my horn contributes to the film. And I’m proud to be a part of this movie because the film is about the birds and birdwatchers of Central Park and about people’s relationship with nature.

Dear readers, I hope you get the chance to enjoy the movie and my 32-second contribution!

The director speaks

I shot my film about the bird life and birders of Central Park over the course of several years. One of the most indelible impressions I have of all those hours of wandering through the Park is the sound of a lone saxophone playing somewhere in the distance and wafting its way through the trees. While there are many who have taken their sax into the park to play, I was lucky enough to bump into Sohrab, one of the finest saxophonists anywhere, and capture a little piece of him in my film. His music is so beautiful, in the final edit of the film we lingered on it longer than me might have because we didn’t want it to go away.

Jeffrey Kimball
Director/Cinematographer
Birders: The Central Park Effect