Making an animal documentary requires at least a lot of patience and self-sacrifice. But exercise can also cause chronic lack of sleep. Sorenza Phelippeau knows something about this: this twenty-year-old did not exceed 2 hours of sleep per night in July 2024 to capture the slightest gestures of a pair of barn owls and their young. Many other nocturnal sequences have since followed to capture these raptors sometimes called “white ladies”.
Graduates of the French-speaking Animal Cinema Training Institute of Ménigoute (IFFCAM), Sorenza Phelippeau and her co-director Thomas Pottier have chosen to devote a 26-minute film to these majestic owls. Both are currently seeking to complete a crowdfunding campaign to ensure the sustainability of this project. Their goal? Participate next fall in the Ménigoute International Ornithological Film Festival (Deux-Sèvres), one of the great references of the genre.
Already crowned with several prizes in France and abroad and originally from Saint-Xandre, near La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), Sorenza Phelippeau continues her journey here by now focusing on her “animal totem”, the 'barn owl. “Each individual has different plumage, different behavior. It’s perhaps also because she lives at night,” smiles the director.
To give substance to this documentary, Sorenza Phelippeau goes through sleepless nights to film these birds of prey from a lookout tent, aided by infrared lights and drastically limiting her movements. A device that she deploys in particular in a barn located in Dompierre-sur-Mer (Charente-Maritime), where the twenty-year-old has placed a wooden nest box. “A couple moved there two weeks later! Owls often have cover, but rarely roost. Many barns are disappearing. Farmers play an essential role in their conservation,” notes Sorenza Phelippeau.
Last summer, the director was able to film the first steps and then the flight of three young owls. “When they come out of the box, it’s folkloric. They practice flapping their wings, making little jumps. One of them even landed on my tent,” she says. These incredible images will illustrate the documentary by Sorenza Phelippeau and Thomas Pottier, as well as sequences filmed with the Deux-Sèvres Ornithological Group (GODS 79). Since 2020, its members have been carrying out a population monitoring program near Melle (Deux-Sèvres), with the installation of nest boxes as well as the installation of rings and GPS beacons, among others. This scientific aspect, these two directors hope, will enrich their efforts to capture the elusive barn owl and contribute to its protection.
