‘Grasshopper Republic,’ About Uganda’s Grasshopper Trappers, Was Built on Trust, Director Says (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Lise Pedersen American director Daniel McCabe and his team have opened up to Variety about the making of “Grasshopper Republic” at Swiss international documentary film fest Visions du Réel, where the pic is nominated in the main competition.

Based on a book of photographs by Michele Sibiloni, a photographer and long-time friend of McCabe, who co-shot the film with him and his brother Michael, “Grasshopper Republic” takes viewers on an immersive vérité style journey alongside Uganda’s grasshopper trappers as they set out to make the catch they hope will make them rich: prices and demand for grasshoppers are high in Uganda, where they are considered a delicacy.

The director was keen to emphasize the collaborative nature of the film, which was shot over three seasons in Uganda. Access to the trappers was made possible thanks to Sibiloni’s well established contacts with them. “We really wanted to make something that was observational, experiential, and for that reason we didn’t want to explain anything.

We were able to do that thanks to Michele’s time on the ground, his dedication to making his book over several years, and the relationships he had created living in Uganda,” said the film’s editor Alyse Ardell Spiegel, also a long-time collaborator of McCabe who worked with him on his previous film “This Is Congo.” The film shows how the traps are built using high pressure sodium light bulbs stripped of their protective UV-B outer layer to attract the insects, which leave the men working in the vicinity suffering from burns from the naked bulbs.