There are times when a reviewer stays up late agonising about what good could possibly be said about what she just saw. They may bite their nails down to the quick. They ask all their less judgmental friends for their opinion.

This isn?t one of those times. Let?s just say that after a recent preview of Rare Bird, held at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) the reviewer slept quite well, thank you very much.

To put it more strongly Rare Bird directed by Bermudian Lucinda Spurling was a Rare Gem. Wow. Fantastic. When does the DVD come out?

There was a special, invitation-only premier of ?Rare Bird? at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research on Monday evening. Despite the weather, the BBSR Hanson Hall was packed.

Rare Bird chronicles the miraculous rediscovery of the cahow, a bird thought long extinct until the 1960s, and former Government conservation officer David Wingate?s very personal quest to save it from extinction.

It spans Bermuda?s history, from the first settlers? early encounters with the birds ? they practically annihilated the birds ? to the present day when Hurricane Fabian almost did the same by washing away 60 percent of the cahows? nesting sites.

Ms Spurling is quickly earning a name for herself in film. She studied film at the University of Bristol in England. Since then, she has created a short for the Bermuda Festival, and in 2002, released ?An Island Near Bermuda? about St. David?s Island.

Ms Spurling said ?Rare Bird? was the first film she has made with an actual budget. Part of the budget went towards hiring other industry professionals to help with the film.

The voice of the narrator in ?Rare Bird?, Elisabeth Noone, may have sounded familiar to many people in the audience, since she has appeared in over 2,000 television and network spots.

The graphics in the film were created by California graphic artist Jim Kenney. Local talent such as John Zuill was also used. The young David Wingate was performed by Saltus Grammar School student Lawrence Doughty.

It could have been a dry, environmental treatise about saving the environment. Instead, Ms Spurling has drawn an almost mystical web around the cahow. If you grew up in the 1980s, like the reviewer, then you may take the existence of the cahow for granted.

Today, people turn it into jewellery, there are streets named for the cahow and it has become Bermuda?s national bird. It is hard to imagine a world the cahow.

Rare Bird brings the wonder of the cahow to the next generation. She?s painted the rediscovery of the cahow as something akin to the rediscovery of the extinct dodo. Her film shows that in the 1950s believing in the cahow was an act of faith.

People who believed in the existence of the cahow were on the same level as people who believed in the yeti or the Loch Ness monster in Scotland.

The wonder of the rediscovery really comes across. And if the cahow could be rediscovered after all these years, maybe we should send out a search party for the dodo, after all. It opens up so many possibilities.

At the end of the movie, Ms Spurling received a standing ovation. The audience were clapping, not just because they had been moved on an environmental level, but also for more nationalistic reasons.

Ms Spurling proves that just because you come from a small island, doesn?t mean you can?t achieve big, at least if your community is behind you. If she can achieve something of this high quality, what are the implications for the rest of us?

Not only should Ms Spurling get applause, but also Shell and the Bank of Bermuda, for putting their faith, and their dollars, in Bermudian talent.

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