Name: The Hedgehog Lady
Genre: Documentary, Short
Released: 2014-08-07
Duration: 4 min

Plays like the start of a fuller film – which it may be, because there is more that could be done than shown here

When Beryl Casey retired she decided she still wanted to offer something of herself and, seeing a need in her local area of Somerset, she decided to turn her home into a hedgehog rescue centre. With 10-40 hedgehogs in little enclosures at any one time, Beryl also helps with awareness raising campaigns to highlight the risk of litter and other hazards to hedgehogs, many of whom she nurses back to health before releasing them to the wild again.

This very short film feels like a very condensed version of a quirkumentary in the way that it takes a good-hearted but odd character and puts them in front of a camera. Many a person has made a career out of such a thing, so this short is not unusual and it is actually a shame that it doesn't do more with it. We are introduced to Beryl in her home and with less than perfect sound, she tells us about what she has, shows us some of the enclosures and material she uses and reflects a little on her own oddity. The short film is mostly comprised of shots of hedgehogs and it is quite cute as a result.

Personally I was looking for some exploration of Beryl – she clearly loves to talk so it would have been nice to get some personal things from her, let her talk about family, friends, previous passions, generally the things that create a person behind the quirk – not in a cruel way but in a sweet way. The film is limited in this regard as it really only covers the material one would expect to have at the start of a 20 or 30 minute film. It is still interesting but it is such a short film that seems to be only interested in the very basic details of what Beryl is doing right now that it doesn't do much more than just that. It is a shame because her passion and her oddity and her proactive approach towards conservation would all have been interesting subjects and I'm not sure why the film was only 4 minutes. Perhaps there is more here if the film gets interest online, but for sure I would have happily listened to Beryl and watched her hedgehogs for longer than this film let me.

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

Dziga Vertov in Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

'The Hedgehog Lady' rescues, brings back to health and releases hedgehogs from the wild in South West England. We see her home based operation and a small percentage of her large collection of hedgehog toys, sculptures and general hedgehog related items.

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The Hedgehog Lady

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