A Big Film About Small Things. Filming a Nature Documentary in Lockdown – Insect O Cide
Featuring glorious, intimate, close-up shots of bugs and insects of all kinds, Insect O Cide is a different kind of nature documentary. The film, produced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, comes from award-winning filmmaker Georgina Willis and explores the catastrophic decline in insect populations worldwide and the effects that this extinction-in-process will have on humanity and on the Earth more broadly. It is currently in post-production and is expected to be completed by August 2021.
Georgina Willis began her career with the film Watermark, the first no-budget film to be selected for the legendary Cannes Film Festival. From there, Willis moved to just outside of London where she now works as a filmmaker and a photographer. Her work is regularly featured in The Independent and The Times. It was this move that would end up serving as the inspiration for Insect O Cide.
“I bought myself an old English barge that had been almost abandoned on the Thames and spent a couple of years making it into my floating home,” she said. “So I was surrounded by nature. I just found it pretty amazing because it was such a contrast to my former city life.”
This awareness, as well as news of the steady insect decline in Germany and around the world, are what convinced Willis to make Insect O Cide. As she started researching, Willis was put into contact with Dave Goulson, a professor, biologist and well known author. Goulson, who Willis said has a knack for explaining the insects’ plight in an easy and accessible manner, provides the narration for the film.
“He shared his vision for a feature film and it was a great pleasure to work with him,” said Willis. “He was able to convey the seriousness of the issue and also offer some remedies for this crisis.”
However, on the day that the crew was set to start recording Goulson’s narration, the first of COVID-19 shutdowns hit London. Not only were the filmmakers unable to record Goulson’s vital audio, but the studio stages and equipment the crew had been set to use were suddenly completely inaccessible. If the film were to be completed, things had to change fast.
So, Willis shifted her focus. Goulson, now recording his dialogue from his home, concentrated the narration on insects that Willis could find and film in her everyday life in Hertfordshire. Willis would go out in the morning, collect insects to bring back to her makeshift floating studio, and spend the locked-down filming and discovering the unseen insect world.
“It made me more connected to my environment,” said Willis. “Looking through the lens, a whole world opened up to me.” Willis said that the film ended up being a big film about small things.
And so, while the process didn’t exactly go as planned, Willis was still able to complete the film she set out to make. Insects’ vital role in our lives are not recognized in culture, and Willis hopes her film can start to change that.
“The issue can’t wait. This is such an important issue…the insect decline is happening rapidly and it is the greatest threat to our existence. The creatures that we have labelled as repulsive are actually vital to our survival. ”
By the writer of Insect O Cide – Johnathan D. Kindall
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