| Chicken People | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Nicole Lucas Haimes |
| Written by | Nicole Lucas Haimes |
| Produced by |
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| Cinematography | Martina Radwan |
| Edited by | Kevin Klauber, A.C.E. Sara Booth |
| Music by | Michael Hearst |
| Production companies |
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| Distributed by | CMT Samuel Goldwyn Films |
| Release dates |
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| Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Chicken People is a 2016 documentary film about people who breed and raise chickens for exhibition. It is focused primarily on three subjects who compete in the Ohio National Poultry Show in Columbus, Ohio.
A number of reviewers compared it to the mockumentary Best in Show.
Synopsis
After an overview of people who have a passion for raising poultry, the film focuses on three main characters — Brian Caraker, a musical theater performer from Branson, Missouri; Brian Knox, an engineer of high performance race engines from New Hampshire; and Shari McCollough, a homemaker from Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Release
Critical response
Chicken People has received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 100% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.23/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for The New York Times, Helen T. Verongos stated that "these chicken people, with deep connections to their birds, make for a fun and at times astonishing film." In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Katie Walsh wrote that "the film proves to be more than just a glimpse into a world that's easy to titter at. Haimes delves into the larger issues and psychological motivations that drive the kind of obsession that allows one to breed award-winning poultry." Joe Leydon, in a review for Variety, called it an "illuminating and amusingly entertaining look at the thriving subculture of competitive poultry breeders", and wrote that the film "generates a fair amount of suspense, it also abounds in moments of ineffably charming comic relief".
A review for The Village Voice criticized the filmmaker for not probing deep enough with some of the subjects and their "larger failure in never finding much of a compelling reason for us to care about this subculture beyond surface geek-show intrigue."
References
- "Chicken People News". CMT.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ Leydon, Joe (1 July 2016). "Film Review: 'Chicken People'". Variety. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ Walsh, Katie (22 September 2016). "Review: Warm-hearted documentary 'Chicken People' looks at poultry breeders". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ Fujishima, Kenji (23 September 2016). "Meet the Folks Who Raise Those Fancy-Ass Show Chickens in 'Chicken People'". The Village Voice. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- "Chicken People (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
- "Chicken People reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
- Verongos, Helen T. (22 September 2016). "Review: 'Chicken People,' Pampering Royalty That Clucks". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
External links
- Chicken People at the distributor's website
- Chicken People at IMDb
- Chicken People official trailer on YouTube
- Chicken People at the International Documentary Association