Collection Guide
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Pelican Media collection
M2637
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Pelican Media collection
Creator:
Pelican Media
Identifier/Call Number: M2637
Physical Description:
48 Linear Feet
(59 boxes)
Physical Description:
1 hard drive(s) (external)
Physical Description:
52 optical disc(s) (cd)
Physical Description:
32 optical disc(s) (dvd)
Date (inclusive): circa 1971-2018
Collection primarily contains media from the production of Pelican Media films in a variety of formats. Series 6 contains
paper records related to the company, project and production notes, and material related to Irving's film studies at Stanford
and pre-Pelican documentary work.
Founded in 1978 in San Francisco, California, Pelican Media is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose primary aim is the
production of films with environmental themes, with a focus is on urban habitats and the relationships between people and
animals. Pelican Media Executive Director Judy Irving is a Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker whose theatrical credits
include The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a feature documentary about the relationship between a homeless street musician
and a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco, Pelican Dreams, about California brown pelicans and the people who know them
best, and Dark Circle, a personal film about the links between nuclear power and weapons.
Irving graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in Psychology and worked as a freelance journalist in Montreal before
hitchhiking across the continent and living on a handmade raft-house in British Columbia. Later, she received her Masters
in Film and Broadcasting from Stanford University, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film.
Her documentary film career has taken her to Alaska, Japan, Russia, Nepal, and Zimbabwe, with peace and the environment as
her main areas of interest. Somehow, birds seem to show up in every movie. Judy's six-film documentary series about the San
Francisco Bay Area's wildlife and open space led to her interest in the wild parrot flock flying the city's north waterfront,
and her habit of swimming year-round in the Bay led to her documentary, 19 Arrests, No Convictions, about a bartender who
"escapes" from Alcatraz by swimming, which premiered in 2008.
adapted from https://www.pelicanmedia.org/about
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift; 2020. Accession 2020-305.
[identification of item], Pelican media collection (M2637). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
Libraries, Stanford, California
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual and born-digital
mmaterials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Digital files are closed until
processed
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Motion picture industry.
Documentary films
Birds -- California.