Even for those not living in large cities, modern life — with the omnipresence of its glowing, beckoning screens, and the constant onslaught of emails and all other manner of digital inducements — offers an enormously skewed vision and perspective of what it means to be a human being sharing this planet with other creatures. Through little sin of our own, most of us are extraordinarily divorced from nature.

Director Sally Aitken’s Every Little Thing, a simple but effectively crafted documentary about hummingbird rescue, of all things, connects viewers in a wondrous manner to a world they might not have seen or even much considered. Extending beyond merely something warm and fuzzy, the movie beautifully reinforces the idea — much needed in today’s world — that compassion and care beyond just ourselves and our own immediate circle of family and friends isn’t and shouldn’t be outcome-determinative.

Set in Los Angeles, Every Little Thing centers around devoted hummingbird rehabilitation master Terry Masear, a retired teacher and writer who provides a fortified sanctuary from her home in the West Hollywood Hills. Through cost-free care spread as much by word-of-mouth as anything else, she attempts to nurse back to health a variety of hummingbirds which she gives names like Cactus, Raisin, Wasabi, Jimmy, Sugar Baby and, yes, Larry Bird.

As she treats everything from malnutrition and wounded wings to babies that have fallen from a nest, there are, of course, some losses but also some breakthroughs and triumphs. “Damaged birds,” Masear says, “like damaged humans, carry a kind of caution, because they know the world is hard.”

The film’s cinematography (credited to Nathan Barlow, Dan Freene and Ann Johnson Prum) is of course at times quite stunning, especially in its savvy use of slow-motion footage and its deployment of drone cameras. The sheer wonder of 50-beats-per-second flight invites no shortage of enchantment. But the movie also shines, in its sun-kissed simplicity, by evoking a broader, grander sense of place, inside and outside Masear’s home, with its abundance of trees and chicken-wire living enclosures. Along the way, viewers learn facts about the creatures themselves (April through July is prime mating and baby season for hummingbirds), but also just get to luxuriate in deep reservoirs of compassion and empathy.

Masear is a warm and highly educated guide (she has four graduate degrees) through this world, and of course has her own experiences with deprivation and trauma that have informed both her personality and path in life. If there’s a slight knock to be found on Every Little Thing, it’s that the Australian-born Aitken, an Emmy-nominated workhorse director with more than two dozen feature and episodic credits to her name, is too deferential and cautious around these topics as it relates to her subject. There’s plenty she could do, even as the very private Masear is understandably disinclined from wanting to share every detail, to draw stronger parallels between experiencing hurt and making the powerful choice to embrace sensitivity.

Every Little Thing comes to DVD by way of Kino Lorber, housed in a regular plastic case, presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, with 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio tracks that more than adequately handle the movie’s straightforward aural design and dimensions. Optional English SDH subtitles are included, but it’s a shame there aren’t some bonus supplemental features here — it’s easy to see a group like the National Audubon Society pitching in with resources and additional educational perspective, if contacted. For more information and/or to purchase Every Little Thing, click here.