A note from the filmmaker, Vanessa Reiser
In July of 2011, during the hottest summer on record, my family and I moved to Austin from New York City. I was seven months pregnant and stunned by the intensity of the summer heat. The only time I left my house with my three-year-old daughter was to either grocery shop or plunge into the cooling waters of one of the two spring-fed pools in my neighborhood, Barton Springs and Deep Eddy. Otherwise, the unrelenting sun made venturing outdoors unbearable. It was only when my second daughter was two months old that I finally walked out of my house in the Zilker neighborhood to explore my new surroundings.
It took two left turns and under ten minutes for me to stumble upon the Purple Martin sanctuary on Virginia Avenue. The 20 poles are situated on a wide grassy lawn, a welcoming place to bring my newborn, snuggled in her baby carrier, and my yellow Lab. As I threw a ball over and over again in the hopes of wearing down my rambunctious dog, a lovely woman with the gentlest Texas accent approached me and introduced herself. She began to tell me about the Martin houses and educated me about these wonderful migrating birds. That day, Laura Joseph welcomed me into her community with a warmth and an openness, and within minutes I had agreed to be a volunteer Martin “landlord.” If I’m honest, I think I was secretly relieved she wasn’t upset that I had trespassed on her property!
Every spring the group of landlords congregates at an annual back-to-the-season dinner at Laura’s gorgeous home. Purple Martin scouts fly overhead chirping their lovely warble, indicating that the birds have returned from their winter in Brazil and are preparing to settle back in to mate and raise their babies. When I showed up to Laura’s house that first spring with my toddler and newborn in tow, I became a part of this friendly and welcoming community that Laura has lovingly cultivated over the last 30 years. As our group chatted and socialized, the sounds of the Martins flying overhead were the soundtrack to the meal, as we discussed plans for sharing the responsibilities of caring for our neighborhood Purple Martin colony.
As a documentary filmmaker, I am always looking for stories to tell, and I have come to realize that I do not need to look far. There are fascinating and meaningful stories right under my nose. I had wanted to tell the story of Laura and the bird lot for years, and I finally pulled the trigger in 2024. Convincing Laura to sit for an interview and share the story of her life with the Purple Martins wasn’t easy, as she is not naturally comfortable as the center of attention. Once she agreed and we had that interview “in the can,” I knew I had something special.
“The Bird Lot” has been the most joyful project I have worked on. Everything about it makes me smile, and at times, happy cry. I am forever inspired by Laura, by her sense of service to nature and to her community, her generosity, humor and innate ability to make others feel welcome. It has been the pleasure of a lifetime to share the story of this community that means so much to me.
About the film
Growing up in rural east Texas, Laura Joseph started singing the praises of Purple Martins – a bird, she claims, “it is impossible to be unhappy in the presence of.” More than 70 years on, her passion has taken flight in the form of a devoted community of bird caretakers. Joseph and her late husband, Cater, transformed the vacant lot adjacent to their well-preserved 19th century home overlooking downtown Austin into a “bird lot.” There, she and volunteer “landlords” from her neighborhood and beyond take turns nurturing a colony of Purple Martins from their February incubation until their July migration to the Amazon rainforest.
Here is an article that was published about the film!
About the filmmaker
Vanessa Reiser is a documentary filmmaker based in Austin, Texas.
She grew up in a family who shared time between Houston, Texas and rural New Hampshire, which was a foundational experience of crossing between worlds that instilled in her an abiding curiosity about people. In 1995 she moved to New York City, where she later earned a BFA in Film and Television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Film school in the late 1990’s was all analog, and learning to shoot on 16mm film and edit on a Steenbeck editing console taught her the foundational craft of filmmaking. There’s something about slicing into film with a raw razor blade that gives one pause before making an edit! It was at NYU where a documentary class with the legendary filmmaker George Stoney provided focus to the rest of her career. It became clear that true stories told with patience, honesty and care were the ones that moved her most.
After college, Vanessa spent 3 years working for the Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Eddie Adams, producing his legendary annual photojournalism workshop in Jeffersonville, New York. Hearing stories of documenting war zones, refugee camps, rock stars, and Fidel Castro helped to inspire her to tell stories of people, ranging from the fascinating to the unseen and overlooked. Her career began in the editing room, and that foundation and instinct for rhythm continues to inform her choices behind the camera. She often works as her own cinematographer and editor, keeping her sets deliberately small and intimate. It’s an approach that creates space for her subjects to be fully and honestly themselves.
For over more than two decades, her work has taken her into classrooms and concert halls, artists’ studios and living rooms, and into the lives of children waiting to be chosen by a family. Her films have been presented by Austin PBS, and her clients have included the University of Texas at Austin, the Austin Ed Fund, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, and Heart Gallery NYC, institutions whose work, like her own, is rooted in the belief that people and their stories matter.
Learn more about Vanessa on her website.
