The Psychic parrot

Canada, 1977

Please note

Sorry, we don't have images or video for this item.

A psychic parrot appears on television to announce that the world will end at midnight Friday. The President decides to send a rocket to the moon with a selected group of people on board so that the human race will survive. The build-up and drama in the days preceding the final events are dutifully reported by television and received by Henrietta (Alix Elias) and Fred (Michael Vale), stereotyped apartment dwellers who formulate their judgements while they experience life through television’s perceptual filter.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at ACMI.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

producer/director

Derek Lamb

production company

Parrot Productions

Duration

00:18:00:00

Production places

Canada

Production dates

1977

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

505906

Language

English

Subject categories

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Animation (Cinematography)

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Mass media - Social aspects

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Television

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Television broadcasting - Social aspects

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Visual communication

Animation

Comedy

Comedy → Satire

Communications, Infrastructure, & Transport → Communication

Crafts & Visual Arts → Photography, Composite

Crafts & Visual Arts → Visual communication

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Communication - Social aspects

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Mass media - Social aspects

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Social role

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Television broadcasting - Social aspects

Education, Instruction, Teaching & Schools → Visual communication

Educational & Instructional

Educational & Instructional → Instructional

Experimental

Experimental → Experimental films - United States

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Social role

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Visual communication

Television

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/97262--the-psychic-parrot/ |title=The Psychic parrot |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=28 April 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}