Two short scientific films about the passion of three biologists to explore the biology of butterflies, resurrected from the Smithsonian archives and re-imagined with a soundtrack.
All proceeds for this work will go to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and The West Oakland Environmental Indicators, a resident-led, community-based environmental justice organization.
Watch the film trailer here -
vimeo.com/312341617
Strings, keyboards, bass, guitar- Kristina Dutton
Drums/percussion - Lisa Schonberg
"Rearing Anartia Butterflies," by Silberglied and Annette Aiello, 1976. 8 mm film
Original footage held at the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Digitization sponsored by Dr. Arnaud Martin (The George Washington University, Washington DC), and the National Science Foundation
"The Sulfur Butterflies"
by Robert Silberglied and Chip Taylor, 1971. 16mm film.
Original footage held at the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Digitization sponsored by Dr. Arnaud Martin (The George Washington University, Washington DC)
Rearing Anartia and Sulfur Butterflies are 8-16mm films documenting the work of lepidopterist Bob Silberglied in the seventies.
Rearing Anartia features Silberglied and entomologist Annette Aiello's field research at the Barro Colorado Island field station in Panama, as they were investigating the factors involved in maintaining two species distinct.
The Sulfur Butterflies features Silberglied and Taylor conducting research in southwest Arizona, in alfalfa fields that condensed incredible densities of butterflies at that time and allowed them to study in depth how females recognize the males of their own species based on ultraviolet coloration. Silberglied's untimely death in a plane crash left behind an undiscovered body of work, including these two research movies. Forty years later, the films were rediscovered in the Smithsonian Institution's archives, digitized, and musical scores were added.
These films are an early testimony of how creative scientists intended to communicate their passion for the study of nature to broad audiences.