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Missoula filmmaker makes case for insects as ‘fabric of life’ in new documentary

A new documentary, “The Little Things That Run the World,” examines the importance of pollinators in the ecosystem and the threats that face them.

by CORY WALSH

Toward the beginning of the new documentary, “The Little Things That Run the World,” a professor who’s dedicated his life to studying bees admits that many people think bugs are, well, annoying.  The film, whose title is taken from naturalist E.O. Wilson, makes a patient and visually rich case for their importance through rich macro photography and careful explanation of pollinators’ keystone role in the environment and the issues facing them, and by extension, human civilization.

Missoula director Doug Hawes-Davis’ feature, many years in the making, includes interviews with Wilson before his death in 2021. It takes viewers along walks in California with a professor, Art Shapiro, who personally created a 40-year project tracking butterfly populations. There are also stops in German nature preserves, West Coast almond groves, urban farms in Detroit, and backyard gardens in Portland, Oregon.  Figures like Wilson and Shapiro (and many more), along with the close-up footage of bees, help the audience develop an appreciation for insects before introducing the environmental threats caused by pesticides, agriculture, non-native planting, and more. The scientific details are parceled out deliberately. You learn of pollinators’ vast numbers, their role in human subsistence (a third of our food depends on it), and also that scientists still have much to learn about them. As David Jablonski of the University of Chicago says, “we’re losing species whose role we don’t fully understand.”  The film includes interviews with the late naturalist E.O. Wilson, who coined the phrase used in the title. 

If you go….

“The Little Things That Run the World” is screening at the Roxy Theater on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 5 and 7:30 p.m. There will be a Q&A after both screenings with filmmakers Doug Hawes-Davis and Dru Carr.

Hawes-Davis has deep roots in the Montana film world. He founded the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, which is now entering its 23rd year. His previous feature films have looked at the removal of the Milltown Dam (“Two Rivers”) and the unusual career of The Gourds, an Austin, Texas rock band (“All the Labor”). He and Dru Carr, who edited this film, co-founded High Plains Films. Together they’ve tackled subjects like the asbestos crisis and fallout (“Libby, Montana”) and the history of the bison in North America (“Facing the Storm”).

The issues this film addresses are vast and the structure helps from overwhelming viewers. The first section, with plenty of cool macro shots of cool- looking bees, butterflies and caterpillar eases you in. The second act should probably startle you, as colony collapse disorder, the devastating effects of monocultures and sterile lawns, are covered. The final third is dedicated to small actions that people can take rather than giving into a despair. The latter might seem natural after Jablonski notes that the five major extinction events were caused by a perfect storm of factors, and that presently, humans are a perfect storm.

The filmmakers traveled to Europe to visit a German group that’s conducted important studies on the volume of insects present in nature preserves over the course of decades.

To counteract that anxiety are ground-level examples by ordinary people. The filmmakers visit a native plant nursery in Connecticut and a resident of Portland, Oregon, who shows off the vitality of his native plant garden. They stop in Detroit, where programs like D-Town Farm convert vacant lots into community gardens that encourage agriculture in the Black community. It happens that the Motor City’s unoccupied structures also are free of pesticides, which helps wild bee populations thrive in urban areas.  Shapiro explains how the declining numbers among butterflies are triggered by habitat loss. Programs that focus on reducing pesticides and backyard native gardens can contribute to safe “greenways” for them.  Wilson, for one, said that he felt optimistic about steps that can be taken if we just “give the bugs a chance.”