Kirran And The Hatchmaker

Kirran Lochend Strang is a lovely subject for a short documentary. He's a rather special little boy who is trying to create a new breed of chicken and travel by sea. Filled to the brim with big ideas - the first time we see him talk to the camera, he's giving a short lecture on a boat he's planning to build - calculating the precise dimensions, and detailing everything on it.

Next we see him rolling out eggs, and giving us a precise family tree for each one of them, reading from very detailed notes. We follow him as the Hatchmaker incubator keeps the eggs warm, and the first chicks emerge. They're a rather bedraggled lot - the first is best described as "small,yellow and loud"; this does not worry Kirran: "Even if they are deformed, I still love them".

He's a contemplative, empathetic young man. He's obviously hurt when one of the chicks slowly dies, and when asked: "What do chickens think about at night?" He immediately suggests: "Life, the universe," as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

The film has been shot in prosumer-grade digital video, with the same slight aperture lengthening as Michael Mann has been using recently, giving an immediacy to the footage. This is combined with Super8 film, and we get a very personable mixture of who Kirran is, and what his dreams are. Telling details, such as Lego bricks which stand where they were discarded and caked in dust and dog-hair, and Kirran reading Practical Poultry.

Closing with even more plans for the journey, I have but one bit of advice - you're gonna need a bigger boat.