GRASSHOPPER REPUBLIC
Director: Daniel McCabe
94min
Filmed over the course of three seasons, GRASSHOPPER REPUBLIC follows a local grasshopper trapping team in verité style, as these modern-day prospectors push into remote forests seeking their fortune by capturing this elusive prey.
We witness massive generators being hauled up collapsing mudbanks. Light posts are erected with chemically treated bulbs, casting a lurid neon green pall over the tree canopy, irresistibly attracting the swarm to their corrugated iron traps.
With otherworldly visuals, these distinct universes collide with a burst of emotion. The trappers, who have suffered through injury, sickness, and exhaustion, finally have their moment and relief washes over them. As for the grasshoppers who have been lured into a trap through unnatural trickery, their path ends in a frying pan.
Shifting between these two perspectives sparks consideration for man’s relationship to nature and our collective effect on it.