Black swan song to inspire awareness

The large, black swan appeared out of nowhere, Bill Spitalnick said, casting a shadow over the spot in Newport Harbor where he and his family had just scattered his father’s ashes.

Spitalnick didn’t realize the swan was Rupert until four days later, when he saw a newspaper report detailing the swan’s death.

Rupert was well known in the waters around Newport Beach. The swan was accidentally struck by a speeding Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol boat on its way to retrieve a human body found in the water in 2006.

After Rupert’s death, Phoebe Shackeroff produced a documentary on him shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

She recently completed a DVD on Rupert’s life that included all 22 minutes from the documentary, as well as interviews with 13 people who shared their stories about Rupert, and footage taken at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

Rupert and his swan companion, Pearl, had been treated at the center, which is planning to add a wing there that will be named after Rupert.

Spitalnick was one of the people who shared his story on the DVD. He’s lived in Newport Beach for the past 10 years, but his house is on the ocean side, not the bay side where Rupert hung out.

He said seeing the swan sitting in the water watching over his father’s remains was one of the strangest, most bizarre sights he had ever seen, as if the swan knew what had just taken place.

“I just kept staring, I couldn’t even speak,” Spitalnick said.

Shackeroff’s family has had a house on Balboa Island for years. Her mom used to kayak around the bay, met Rupert and sent her daughter Rupert’s full-page obituary when it ran in the newspaper.

The clipping really caught her attention, Shackeroff said. She was shocked that a swan not only warranted a full-page color obituary, but that plans were being developed for a paddle-out funeral.

That’s something you might expect for a surfer, she said, not a swan.

“I was just shocked, and I wanted to know more about how a swan could capture the heart of a community,” she said.

That curiosity led to the making of the documentary, a website in Rupert’s name, and then the DVD.

Debbie McGuire, director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, said the Rupert wing will include a teaching hospital.

The center has raised some funds, but proceeds Shackeroff is donating from the DVD sales will go toward purchasing an X-ray machine, anesthesia machines, cabinetry and lighting.

Shackeroff wants to help raise awareness as much as she can about issues affecting other animals that have been helped at the center.

“Rupert had a name, but there are a lot of other creatures out there,” Shackeroff said.

Putting the DVD together was a collaborative effort, using friend and cinematographer Taran Reese, a fellow USC student, and animator Daisy Church.

“She’s the heart of the movie,” Shackeroff said.

All the music on the DVD is from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” arranged by Los Angeles composer Gerard K. Marino, a partnership that came about after he and Shackeroff met.

One reason the DVD took a little longer to be released is because Shackeroff wanted it to be as eco-friendly as possible.

That was also more expensive and required a lot more work, she said. She researched how to get it printed on recycled paper.

They were able to do it that way, though, using Greener Printer in Berkeley to do the cover, then ordering the cases separately.

The DVD was released Dec. 15 and can be purchased on the website at www.ruperttheswan.com.

Shackeroff’s future plans include getting the word out to the community about Rupert’s life and what’s being done at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center.

She’ll continue to help with fundraising, and hopes to be there when the Rupert Wing is opened.

McGuire is grateful for Shackeroff’s help, but said the new wing has added support as well.

“It’s Rupert’s way of helping,” McGuire said.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at sue.thoensen@latimes.com.