Directed by Daniel McCabe • 2023 • United States
Part one-of-a-kind nature documentary, part science fiction, GRASSHOPPER REPUBLIC unfolds over the course of three seasons in Uganda, where a local grasshopper-trapping team stalks and captures this elusive prey by the barrelful, pushing their way into remote forests and villages in pursuit of fortune. Meanwhile, specialized cameras transport audiences into the natural world as seen from the perspective of the insects themselves. The result is a strange, beautiful, and breathtakingly immersive exploration of the delicate balance between natural ecosystems and human disruption.
Up Next in Surreal Nature Films
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Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
Directed by Mark Lewis • 1988 • Australia
Starring Tip Byrne, Glen Ingram, H. W. KerrMark Lewis takes the nature documentary into new realms of the humorous, surreal, and downright bizarre with this stranger-than-fiction tale of the ultimate environmental self-own. The cane toad—Bufo marinus, a...
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Microcosmos
Directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou • 1996 • France
Starring Jacques Perrin, Kristin Scott ThomasExperience the strange, beautiful, surreal world of insects as never before in this singular, artful nature documentary, which employs specially created cameras and lenses—developed over...
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The Natural History of the Chicken
Directed by Mark Lewis • 2000 • United States
While most know chicken as a dinner-plate staple, few pause to consider this bird’s many virtues. In this fascinating and gently comic documentary, director Mark Lewis delves into the under-recognized complexities of this seemingly simple animal. Thr...
