EXCLUSIVE: The Palila bird only measures about six inches and weighs less than 2 ounces, but it’s not to be underestimated. The yellow-crowned and breasted avian creature sued the state of Hawaii in 1979 to prevent its own extinction.

The documentary A Paradise Lost, directed by Laurie Sumiye, combines animation with live-action footage to explore the unprecedented legal dispute. Blooming Ink Pictures will begin a limited theatrical run of the documentary in New York (DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in Manhattan will show the film from July 31-August 6. It will screen in Los Angeles from Aug. 2-4 at the Now Instant Theater and Laemmle Royal). Following its East Coast debut at DCTV the film will be presented on PBS nationally (and select global airlines).

“The Palila, found only on Mauna Kea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, remains one of the rarest birds in the world,” notes a release. “During the court case [Palila v. Hawaii], a stuffed Palila sat at the table during the historic environmental lawsuit which established habitat protections for American endangered species. This Palila specimen narrates the film from their POV. Today, the endangered finch’s prognosis is critical; a Native Hawaiian conservationist strives to restore Palila’s native forest lost to climate change, cattle ranching and sheep grazing.”

A Paradise Lost won the Best Social Justice and Environment Documentary Award at the Festival De Cine Antigua in Guatemala and has also screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival, the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival in Oregon, the Santiago Wild Film Festival in Chile, the EcoFrames Environmental Film Festival in Greece, and the SCINEMA International Science Festival in Australia.

Sumiye, a native of Hawaii, is an artist, animator and filmmaker. Her credits include the short films Struggle for Existence and Of Memory and Los Sures. Directing and producing A Paradise Lost inspired Sumiye to create a series of paintings depicting the Palila.

“A conservationist I interviewed said there are an only about 600 Palila birds left in the world. I believed I could magically manifest more birds into existence by painting them,” Sumiye explains on her website. “Creating one image per individual means doubling the number of Palila. The paintings are based on photographs taken by scientists, wildlife photographers and conservationists involved in their protection. We see them as individuals who are on the same level of importance as humans.”

In the film, the Palila narrator says, “How did I, a little bird, become the first animal to go to court to save their kind? …In my dream, we survived. Mauna Kea was protected.”

Hawaii is considered by many conservationists to the be the extinction capital of the world.

“Hawaii is in an extinction crisis,” one expert affirms in the film’s trailer. “If you work in Hawaii, you’re working on the frontlines of extinction every day.”

You can watch the trailer for A Paradise Lost here:

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