Telling a story about how to help in our society, we specifically chose to include a range of actors, characters, and topics with different genders, races, classes, disabilities and abilities. Portland can be seen as a non-diverse place — we want to show another side to the Portland story.

  Story

Julie and Jeff are your ordinary Portland couple, except Julie is obsessed with helping those in need. As she offers a hand to everyone — and fails miserably — she has to wonder: can you do any good in this world? 

 

The world of One Bird includes a range of relatable, goofy, and kind-hearted characters: hapless Jeff and Julie, her over the top friend Gena, the very needy therapist Dr. Helfmann, their homeless neighbor Frank.. and many others. (And of course their dog, Rocco, who sees them through every hurdle.)

 

“You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” - Charles Bukowski

 

 

Director's Statement

 

The title comes from Charles Bukowski’s quote — “'You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” That’s where we start. How do you save the world, when it's full of craziness, neuroses, and uncertainty? One Bird finds comedy seamlessly in its plot and characters — which, in a world where we are all honest about our loonyness, isn’t that hard to do. Everyone here is out of place. Yes, we understand: a synopsis that talks about homelessness and addiction — and then calls itself a comedy — touches a few nerves. Well, all we can say is, you gotta see it. As I hit 40 and recently had my first child, I realized that, as the world gets darker, humor is more important than ever. It allows us to explore the worst things and feel it all — the ugliness, the sadness, the absurdity, the hilarity, the reality – equally.

 

 Project Status

 

We finished production in 2016. We are 85% of the way through post-production — fully edited, fully scored, finishing up a few tweaks with color and sound. We played at our first festival in April, where we screened our pilot episode, "Teamwork." Now we are working on marketing and publicity, the festival circuit, our premiere event, and, finally, getting this series up on various online platforms for streaming.