Flaco the Owl Documentary Director Penny Lane Speaks Freely

Director Penny Lane’s “Wild Inside,” a documentary about Flaco the owl—the Eurasian eagle-owl who fled the Central Park Zoo in the winter of 2023 and stole hearts as he learned how to survive in the city—premiered on July 29 on the Great Hill in Central Park. The evening screening was free and open to the public.

Much of the film’s footage and testimony came from New Yorkers who followed first-hand Flaco’s journey to the trees, sidewalks, and high-up perches of the concrete jungle. The film centers the voices of residents as they worried for his safety, were delighted by his against-the-odds adaptation, sympathized with his plight to get by and find a mate, or simply found themselves caught in his mesmerizing golden gaze.

Straus News spoke with director Penny Lane—whose numerous other documentaries include “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” “Listening to Kenny G” and “Hail Satan?”—about what she saw in Flaco an what we might learn from his story. “Wild Inside” opened at July 31 at the IFC and expands to screens nationwide on International Owl Awareness Day on August 4: Hoot! Hoot!

How did this film begin?

My dear friend Jeremy, who is the first voice you hear in the film, happened to be the first person to see Flaco on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue that night in February 2023. He texted me these photos because he knew I was a bird person, and I was instantly activated and engaged. I was obsessed with the story and losing sleep worrying about this owl—worrying about the fact that he was probably gonna starve because he couldn’t hunt and could barely fly.

The film project really started when all that changed, about five weeks later. We were watching him transform from a zoo animal into a wild animal in real time. That’s what you kill for in a documentary—to actually see change in your protagonist over time. I thought, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a zoo animal transform into a wild animal.”

How did you build the scenes where the owlers are watching Flaco? Was it reenactment?

It was. We had footage and images from the NYC birders, the news, tourists, and all the other stuff we crowdsourced, and then the filmmaking involved going back and shooting reverse angles and wides—things to create the feeling of being there. It was a huge production challenge to match all of that original footage. We just wanted it all to feel very present tense, that you were there as this was unfolding.

What was the greatest challenge of making this film?

The greatest challenge was trying to accurately and fairly represent a really diverse set viewpoints.

I really wanted to represent people who felt that the public’s interest in Flaco was kind of stupid or anthropomorphizing. But those people didn’t really want to talk to me because they were kind of annoyed that the film was being made in the first place.

The birders who loved Flaco were in from day one. But there’s only so many times you need to hear, “Yay, Free Flaco!” right? Finding people to be in the film to represent other points of view took building trust over a much longer period of time.

I always knew that the film would fail if I couldn’t raise the really important objections people were raising. For example, there was concern for the native ecosystem, about releasing a non-native apex predator into a delicate, local ecosystem. There was also the question of zoos and whether breeding animals in captivity for conservation purposes was moral or good science. Then there were questions about how big that enclosure was and whether it was or was not an acceptable enclosure for a bird like Flaco.

Did the Central Park Zoo decline to participate?

Of course they declined, but we tried many times to get their take because we had so many questions. The public was making a lot of assumptions about what was going on with Flaco’s life before he was freed, and I couldn’t help the public know whether their assumptions were correct. Was he ever out of that small enclosure in a larger flight cage? Did he have enrichment activities? Was he practicing flight in a more ongoing way? I have no idea. The answers are unknown to us.

We give Daniel Cone [the representative from the World Bird Sanctuary who appears in the film] so much credit for talking to us because almost no one else would.

When you returned to the World Bird Sanctuary to talk to Cone after Flaco’s death, you pushed back on his claim that Flaco’s death proved he hadn’t adapted to the wild.

I have a huge amount of respect for the work the Wild Bird Sanctuary does. But I was like, “No. That’s not at all what this proves because this bird died the way any urban bird dies. He did not die the way a hapless zoo animal who didn’t know what he was doing might die. He died the way wild birds die in New York City: with rat poison in their system.” The narrative that he didn’t adapt is almost an insult to what he accomplished and what he showed us about the capabilities of animals. So I had to push back on that.

It’s always been easy to care about Flaco, partly because he was such a beautiful owl.

I love all owls; I’m a birder. But a lot of owls are pretty creepy. They have, like, black eyes, you know? And they look like aliens. But Flaco just was the most handsome. I always joke that I’ve never had an easier time getting my audience to care about my protagonist.

Straus: What do you want viewers to take away from the film?

When you’re a child, you readily accept stories featuring animals, but the animals are all completely anthropomorphic—more like humans dressed up as owls. In your adult life, how many opportunities do you have to really get to know one wild animal, to spend time trying to inhabit the sense of what it might be like to be that animal?

The film is an invitation to consider what it might be like to be Flaco.

When you started the project, what did you personally think would happen to Flaco?

Lane: I knew that he was going to die, probably of rat poisoning. But I didn’t know if he’d live 10 days, 10 weeks, or 10 years. I pitched that I would film until he dies, cover his whole life. The mystery really added to the urgency of getting started filming because I was like, “He could die tomorrow.”

What did you learn about New York City in the process of making this film?

Lane: There are times when something unusual happens in New York, and you have this feeling that everyone is looking in the same direction. This usually feels like a city where everyone is ping-ponging around in their own little world, but this story reminded me that when something amazing happens, New Yorkers will come together, join arms, and feel like a real community.

And New Yorkers like to celebrate a New York success story together. Especially an underdog story. Especially an underdog immigrant story, because that’s what this city is built on.