Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

Directed by Jessica Oreck

OFFICIAL SELECTION
SXSW FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER
CINEVEGAS FILM FESTIVAL

OFFICIAL SELECTION
AFI

WINNER
SPOTLIGHT AWARD
CINEMA EYE HONORS

2009, 90 min

Working backwards through history, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo explores the mystery of the development of Japan's love affair with bugs using insects like an anthropologist's toolkit, the film uncover Japanese philosophies that will shift Westerners' perspectives on nature, beauty, life, and even the seamingly mundane realities of their day-to-day routines.

Press

Invested with fantastic images

Jeff Meyers, Metro Times

Hushed and meditative.

Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader

Delightful essay.

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun Times

Fully engaged from start to finish.

Hank Sartin, Time Out Chicago

A mesmerizing film-essay

Stephen Gossett, Flavorpill Chicago

Oreck's unconventional travelogue of the Japanese bug hunter's mindset is as artistic as it is educational

Stefan Gruenwedel, SF Station

This may be your only chance this year to take a pair of 6-year-olds to a subtitled film that will hold their interest

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

Truly joyous moments to behold

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

Delightftully 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

Jessica Oreck on the Leonard Lopate Show

Jessica Oreck's documentary essay about Japan's fascination with insects observes the phenomenon with a curious, incisive eye.

Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Delightful [...]. A doorway to something huge and eternal. Bring the kids.

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

Entrancing. Critics' Pick

New York Magazine

A striking micromasterpiece

Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle

More than just simple nature film or an anthropological examination, Beetle Queen becomes the attitude itself, and a fascinating immersion into another society's vision of the world

Dan Persons, The Huffington Post

Meditative and adorably hypnotic

Hunter Stephenson, Slashfilm

Interview of Jessica Oreck

Am New York

Remarquable..quietly spellbinding

Justin Chang, Variety

Beetle Queen bristles with kinetic energy...A film to be heard as as seen

Micheal Chaiken, Film Comment

Breathtaking...transforming the ordinary to the extraordinary

Michael Tully, Hammertonail.com