Some Guy Named David Sibley

OK: time to come clean.

I’d LIKE to be able to say that all of the elements of the production of “Opposable Chums: Guts & Glory at The World Series of Birding” were carefully planned in advance, and executed to a “T.”

However, the realities of documentary filmmaking, especially documentary filmmaking with a 2-week lead-time, are otherwise.

Case in point:

I was in Cape May on a fine autumn day, able-bodied Assistant Cameraman Steve Marruzelli by my side, just to get some generic Cape May shots for the film.

I had no idea that New Jersey Audubon’s annual “Fall Weekend” was happening. The event, bringing in speakers, authors, vendors, and enthusiasts, had eluded my addled pate.

But that’s what Steve and I found ourselves in the middle of.

And who was having a book signing?

David Sibley.

For those who’ve been living in a cave that Osama Bin Laden might envy, David Sibley, aside from being a brilliant ornithologist and gifted artist, is the author of “The Sibley Guide to Birds,” the most revolutionary field guide in a generation.

Whereas Roger Tory Peterson’s ground-breaking “A Field Guide To The Birds” showed for the first time, with a simple but ingenious system of pointers, what to look for in the field, David Sibley’s guide, with multiple illustrations of varying seasonal plumage, showed you what the bird would look like when you got there.

The guy was a hero of mine; his efforts had enriched my own birdwatching by an untellable magnitude, and the feeling seemed to be the same with every birder I encountered.

And here he was, signing books. The line to get his autograph, went through the hall and out the door, confirming the seismic rumble this man had made in ornithology.

He was an Orn Star.

And here he was, right in front of me. Could I…would it be possible for me to…can you imagine if…

Well, documentary filmmaking is no place for the shy, and so I manhandled my native reticence to the mat and asked.

Sure, he’d love to do an interview. But he can only give me 20 minutes.

Ai yi yi… 20 minutes of a David Sibley interview for my little, self-funded labor of love. If there’s a God, he loves birdwatchers.

Well, the lighting wasn’t great. The glare in his glasses from the windows was disturbing, and any amount of futzing I did to ameliorate the situation was time spent not interviewing him. So I rolled tape.

Winging the interview wasn’t much of a problem: I’m a birder- I have a million questions for David Sibley encoded in my DNA. And he was, of course, gracious, educated, opinionated, and brilliant. A documentary filmmaker’s dream.

But, I gotta come clean. I didn’t have a “publicist” who “reached out” to his “team” to arrange a “face-to-face.”

It was dumb luck, the same luck that dogged the heels of this film from the get-go. If there’s a God…