The movie the airline industry doesn't want you to see

Festival to show film about flight attendants that got its producer, a Petaluma native, fired
April 5, 2006

By DANE GOLDEN
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Is it New York or New Delhi tonight? Wait by the phone and find out.

Wherever Summer Pozzi (Lara Phillips, "Road to Perdition") is going tonight, she's going to work her way there, as a flight attendant. But the stopovers in glamorous cities and hotels have become a bit routine.

"The Aviary," playing at the Sonoma Valley Film Festival Friday and Saturday, is about both the excitement and drudgery of flying around the world -- and life is often not as the stereotypes would lead you to believe.

"The last thing I want to do on my days off is fly around," Summer tells her cabbie. She longs to find a father she does not know, and yet seeks distance from her hypochondriac mother. And, with perhaps a nod to the stereotype, Summer seeks to fall in love with the perfect captain.

After a surprise transfer from Chicago to San Francisco, Summer arrives to her new apartment with just a roller bag to her name. But, surprise -- there are no free bedrooms. No mind, she takes up residence on the couch, which seems no less a home than any of the lonely yet lovely hotel rooms she makes her home in each night.

The movie is written and produced by Silver Tree, a Petaluma native who began working on the script when on furlough from her flight attendant job after 9/11. Tree wanted to describe the unexplored reality of life in the skies, which is, she said, "exciting, humiliating, glamorous, at times thankless, but always interesting."

But how to make a movie in eight cities around the world on a shoestring budget? Tree's status as a flight attendant enabled her to travel and shoot on location in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Paris and Hawaii, all under the radar. There are also some Sonoma County locations.

The film is ingeniously directed by Abe Levy, a sometime Tomales resident and Tree's fiancé, who also directed "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Trying." His formula included guerilla filmmaking techniques and teaching Tree to use the camera on her own while on working trips to distant locales.

"Abe taught me how to use the camera and I just strapped it to my roller bag," said Tree. "I did some pretty difficult shots in Paris where we needed my arm to be in the shot, but I had to operate the camera as well, plus I had only 10 minutes to catch the Eiffel Tower while it sparkled for midnight."

Unfortunately, Tree was recently fired by her airline, which she never mentioned in the film or anywhere else. Seems they didn't appreciate her portrayal of life and love at 30,000 feet.

However, as evidenced by reviews on its Web site, "The Aviary" has won over an international audience of flight attendants, who herald the accuracy of its portrayal.