'Chop Shop' director took pigeons under his wing

 

CHAMPAIGN – Director Ramin Bahrani not only meticulously trained amateur actors for his neo-realist film, "Chop Shop," but also spent three weeks training pigeons for the final scene.

"I had a pigeon wrangler, and unfortunately it was me," he joked Thursday afternoon after his sophomore film was screened at Roger Ebert's Film Festival at the Virginia Theatre.

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