Community made.
We believe film should bring urgent stories to life through engagement with real communities. Homing was made in deep collaboration with the pigeon breeding community in New York. Gentrification and city regulations have endangered the time honored craft of pigeon breeding, and the people that sustain it. Our film is here to say: this community is an integral part of the cultural fabric of our city and should be protected.
We are the first production ever to film at a secretive live pigeon auction that takes place each Sunday in Long Island. Homing blends documentary footage with scripted content, blurring the lines of both as our actor, Thiago Macklin, auctioned off a real bird to produce the climactic auction scene.
Meet Thomas O’Neil, Pigeon Master and third-generation pigeon keeper.
Tommy keeps pigeons in the same coop his father did since the 70s. Though much of his family has left, he remains steadfast in the same apartment tending to these birds. As Pigeon Master, he helped us fill the screen with his flock of over 1,000 live birds!
Several weeks before production began, Tommy helped train our actor, Thaigo Macklin, how to safely handle birds, over many sessions.
