Nocturnes

Watched this at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

This documentary is definitely unique as it isn't about the studies of butterflies and moths, rather an meditative and experimental-like approach to the subject with gorgeous colorful camerawork of the landscapes and amazing visual and sound designs throughout. The filmmakers have provided an interest observation about butterflies and moths using sound design, imagery and small narration to describe the ecology system and what makes the world such a beautiful environment.

As mentioned, the sound designs are incredible and it's best to view the movie with headphones or surround system environment as the sound really adds the experience of listening and viewing this documentary. The sounds of the moths and butterflies together creates the sound of rainfall and it was an very interesting ASMR vibe experience.

The subject was interesting and while the pacing does drag quite a bit at certain moments and I do wish there were a little more interviews and discussions. As a whole, the experience felt meditative and relaxing.

There's a line in this documentary that tells us that moth-watching is a waiting game, and that it requires patience. Well, so is a film about them - and for much of this we don't really advance much in our search of the reclusive hawk moth in the forests of the Himalayas. When it does come alive, though, it's fascinating to see the sheer variety of flying nightlife their screen attracts as they try, quite meticulously, to position it to attract these creatures that are drawn to the light. The people here actually add very little, indeed I could probably have done without them altogether. Just leave us with the imagery and some pretty impressive audio and you can quite literally get lost amidst the wonders of a natural world that we rarely stop and take notice of. At times it sounds as if you are in the middle of a monsoon with the wings of thousands of insects flapping furiously for the few days or weeks they have to live before they breed-on, die or are food for an equally astonishing array of suitably adapted fauna. It's a bit on the long side and can be repetitive, but the vibrancy of the sounds and colours hit the mark from time to time and it's quite a therapeutic watch.