Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

(Past) Sun, Jun 27 at 5:15 pm (Past) Sun, Jul 4 at 5:15 pm (Past) Sun, Jul 11 at 5:15 pm Leonard Nimoy Thalia $11; Members $7; Seniors $9 Get two tickets per film for an entire year for just $100 with a Thalia Film Pass! (Limit of one screening per film.)

2009. Jessica Oreck. US/Japan. 90 minutes. Color.

Q&A with the director following the June 27 screening!

CineVegas International Film Festival: Special Jury Prize

Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Awards: Winner

Official Selection: AFI; SXSW Film Festival

Independent Spirit Awards: Truer Than Fiction Award nomination

"Truly joyous moments to behold". - Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

 "Delighftully weird". - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"Remarkable. Stunningly gorgeous".  - Noel Murray, The Onion

"An expansive take on the world in miniature." - Eric Hynes, The Village Voice

"Beautifully filmed, seductively narrated." - V.A. Musetto, New York Post

"Dazzling." - Mark Rifkin, This Week in New York

"Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo manages to be an illuminating, delightful, breathtaking and captivating documentary for all ages." - Avi Offer, New York Movie Guru

"Engaging and poetic"  - Maria Garcia,The Film Journal

Like a detective story, the film untangles the web of influences behind Japan’s captivation with insects. It opens in modern-day Tokyo where a single beetle recently sold for $90,000 then slips back to the early 1800s, to the first cricket-selling business and the development of haiku and other forms of insect literature and art. Through history and adventure, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo travels all the way back in time to stories of the fabled first emperor who named Japan the “Isle of the Dragonflies.”
Along the way the film takes side trips to Zen temples and Buddhist Shrines, nature preserves and art museums in its quest for the inspirations that moved Japan into this fascination while other cultures hurtled off towards an almost universal and profound fear of insects.
Interspersed with the philosophies of one of Japan’s best-selling authors and anatomists, Dr. Takeshi Yoro, and laced with poetry and art from Japan’s history, this film becomes about much more than insects. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo is set to the rhythm of traditional Japanese values in its attention to detail, harmony, and the appreciation of the seemingly mundane. It quietly challenges the viewer to observe the world from an uncommon perspective that will shift the familiar to the fantastic and just might change not only the way we think about bugs, but the way we think about life.

While you watch the film, enjoy a glass of wine and a light snack in the intimate cabaret atmosphere of the Leonard Nimoy Thalia.