Tokyo is home to some 13 million people, but the 20,000 crows that also live there are holding their own, according to this documentary by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson.

City and birds are elegantly filmed, but up close the crows are not very photogenic. They’re larger, more frightening creatures than their North American counterparts and are possessed of wicked-looking beaks. The crows steal baby animals from the zoo, food from carts, laundry off lines. They short out Tokyo’s famed commuter rails and cause blackouts when they nest in power lines. One unsettling section shows crows attacking humans who are too close to nests, swooping down with a terrifying abruptness that would have amused Alfred Hitchcock.

In short, the crows are pests, but the movie shows them great affection, as do the humans who discuss the ways they must accommodate the crows. After a while it is impossible not to admire the birds’ intelligence and resilience, and see that perhaps it’s the other way around: The crows are the ones putting up with us.

Film Forum is screening the movie alongside a 16-minute short, “CatCam,” about a suburban man who captured his cat’s meanderings via a digital camera around its neck. It’s a cute concept, but the Tokyo crows would eat the kitty’s lunch, and then eat the kitty.