The Beetle Queen of NYC

"I always wanted to make a movie about bugs," producer/director Jessica Oreck explained after the first SXSW Film Festival screening of her debut documentary Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo on Sunday. Growing up in Louisiana and Colorado ("There's less bugs in Colorado," she lamented), "My parents say that before I could walk, I was always catching cockroaches." These days, her collection includes spiders, millipedes, praying mantises, stick insects, hissing cockroaches and even a rhinoceros beetle.

Since Japanese culture shares her obsession with everything with six, eight, or 750 legs, this film was "this perfect project," especially since it allowed her to meet noted author, philosopher, and fellow entomologist Dr. Takeshi Yoro. The only downside was that Japan has so many gorgeous insects. She admitted to wondering, "Everything, I'd say, can I smuggle this back?" Fortunately, she added, cameraman Sean Williams talked her round.

So where did the title come from? Williams gave the credit to a poet friend of theirs. When they told him about their film about bugs in Japan, "he presumed it was a monster movie."

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo screens again Tuesday, March 17, 12pm and Saturday, March 21, 3pm, at the Alamo Ritz.