Judy Irving is a Sundance- and Emmy award-winning filmmaker of 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 which is now being re-released in a restored version for its 20th anniversary. Her other work includes Dark Circle, a personal film about the impact of the nuclear industry on residents of Colorado, California, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki; Pelican Dreams, about Brown Pelicans and those who know and love them; and Cold Refuge, which premiered in 2023, about how swimming in San Francisco Bay mitigates life’s major challenges. In 2015, Judy was elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Documentary Branch. She lives on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco with her husband, Mark Bittner, and two rescue parrots from the wild flock.
