The Natural History of the Chicken

Most of us best know the chicken from our dinner plates: whether as thigh, wing, or drumstick. We barely pause a moment to consider the bird’s many virtues. Mark Lewis’ film expands the frontiers of popular awareness and delightfully allows us to discover how this small, common and seemingly simple animal can reveal itself to be on its own terms as complex and grand as any of God’s creatures. Along the way, we glimpse Gallus domesticus in every environment and station, and we listen to ordinary people telling stories about their extraordinary chickens – and some are truly the stuff of legend! The film allows us to rethink our relationship with a creature we have previously taken for granted while at the same time it provides a lens by which we look at ourselves.