Chicken City

I originally published this interview with Chicken City producer/director Pam Percy in June 2023. Since then, the movie has been released and is currently available for streaming on Vimeo, Vudu, Hoopla, and Prime Video. You can watch the Chicken City trailer here!

Here’s some really good news! A chicken movie is being created right now as you read this! This is no faux chicken movie with a few chickens wandering around in the background. The focus of the movie is chickens!

For a good long while now, I’ve been promoting the idea that the world needs a couple of good chicken movies. Matter of fact, I published a piece a few years ago that suggested just that. That article is still on my page for all to read. It’s called “The World Needs A Couple of Good Chicken Movies.” The premise is right there in the title, right?

Welcome to Chicken City! In this movie, the chickens are the stars!

Chicken City is a documentary that explores the role that chickens have played in our history and our culture. The story unfolds in a city of chickens. The premise is right there in the title, right?

I recently had the opportunity to have some back-and-forth with writer/director/producer Pam Percy about her upcoming film. Everything that I’ve learned from Pam about Chicken City has increased my enthusiasm. I’m looking forward to its release with excited anticipation!

Randy’s Chicken Blog: Tell me about Chicken City.

Pam Percy: Chicken City is the first film to honor the chicken as a cultural icon. It’s unique. It combines eight animated chicken characters with a documentary style of cinematography using images, footage and artwork. We created a fictitious city, Chicken City, with buildings – The Poulet Musee, the Leghorn Library, the Roostervelt Academy, the Cock and Bull Cafe, the Eggenheim Museum and the Apollo Theater showing a fowl film festival hosted by Roger Egbert.

RCB: Why a movie about chickens? What compelled you to make Chicken City?

PP: Chicken City was 30 years in the making. I bought a farm in 1985 and was gifted 30 chickens. My obsession began! In 1990, after realizing that there was little information about chickens in art, I started researching artists who had painted and sculpted chickens. I guess I was ahead of my time. I was unable to find a publisher for my first manuscript A Chicken in Every Art.

I sadly put it away for years until I had one of those “serendipitous conversations.” I heard about The Complete Pig and The Complete Cow published by Voyageur Press. So, I proposed The Complete Chicken, an Entertaining History of Chickens. Lo and behold, they agreed, and it was published in 2002. The run was successful, the hard cover went into a second printing and then a soft bound was printed. Now it’s out of print - but sometimes you can find it online.

RCB: Indeed, you can. I recently got a copy through Amazon.

PP: Fast forward to 2020. My late husband, Martin Hintz, wanted to make a film about his father, a P47 pilot killed in Italy in World War Two and began the project. Sadly, he passed away before the film was started, so I jumped in and produced, wrote and directed the film. Beginners luck, it did well and won some awards. So, I was bitten with the film bug and decided to return to my chicken roots and produce my second film, Chicken City, based on my book, The Complete Chicken. With my creative team of editors, artists, musicians and an animator, the film is well underway with a release date of Fall 2023.

RCB: Okay. Let’s imagine that I’ve picked up my big box of popcorn and my extra-large soda, I’ve settled into my seat, the screen lights up, and the movie’s underway. Tell me about my experience watching this film. What am I going to see?

PP: You’ll be amazed. Chicken City will show you how steeped in history the chicken really is. You’ll learn more about chickens than you could ever imagine. Hence Chicken Enlightenment! Who would have thought that chickens have been around since the dawn of history. They have been worshipped, abhorred, adored, sacrificed, maligned, sentimentalized and idealized. Artists, musicians, authors, film makers, and even politicians have reflected on the chicken.

You’ll "tour" Chicken City. At the Poulet Musee you’ll explore the history of the chicken. You’ll start with the Red Jungle Fowl, around 3500 BC. And you’ll learn how it spread throughout the world. You’ll discover its importance in mythology, religion, and as an industry.

The Cock and Bull Cafe will offer you chicken inspired recipes and their history. And there will be entertainment: Some favorite chicken TV shows, chicken inspired music, and radio shows.

You’ll get to take in an art show called A Chicken in Every Art at the Eggenheim Museum. From Grant Wood to Picasso to Chagall, almost all great artists have a chicken in their body of work.

At the Fowl Film Festival, film historian, Roger Egbert will pay a tribute to some of the great chicken scenes in films like Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, Ma and Pa Kettle, Rocky and more.

And at the Leghorn Library, Abigail Australorp will talk about some of the great authors with chicken inspired works from Aesop to Hans Christian Anderson and even William Shakespeare.

Finally, at the Roosterville Academy, Professor Agbar will teach many of the chicken inspired words, some naughty some nice, and will also suggest chicken field trips including Key West, Wayne Nebraska and Chicken, Alaska.

RCB: I am honestly really looking forward to the release of this film! I am so eggcited!

PP: An eggstraordinary time will be had by all at Chicken City!