Birds of a Feather

In Birds of a Feather, Nora Sweeney creates a warm, endearing portrait of a group of elderly Armenian men playing backgammon in a park in Glendale, California. Sweeney cultivates a sense of ceremony in the game, showing each player arriving from different directions, to convene together. Subtitles are only provided for a few minutes, introducing us to the group’s conversation in their shared language. Sweeney creates a strong sense of the communication and conviviality, at play beyond words, through this omission, intimate close-ups of hands, and personal items – cards, keys, a bottle of cologne, and the tactility of analogue film.