Behind the Scenes: Sex, Lies and Butterflies

Colourful, beautiful, wonderful – butterflies are the gems of our parks and gardens.

Currently, TMFS together with Thirteen/WNET are co-producing a documentary about these fascinating creatures, their widely unknown behaviour and their incredibly complex transformation from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally into a butterfly.

Ann Johnson Prum of Coneflower Studios in New York, is still impressed by the shooting in the Atlas mountain range in Morocco, Northern Africa. “This desert landscape looks just like the surface of the moon”, she says. “But the oases are teeming with life – and it was here we found and filmed the Painted Lady. This butterfly species is really special, because research is showing that the migration of the Painted Lady is the longest of all butterflies in the world – far longer than the famous Monarchs’.”

It is an amazing multigenerational migration that takes the Painted Ladies from Morocco through Europe up to Northern Scandinavia, and back again – a journey of 15,000 kilometres.

Coneflower Studios filming butterflies in Morocco

’Sex, Lies & Butterflies’ will be a comprehensive portrait of moths and butterflies, providing new and spectacular insights into the secret lives of these fragile and yet highly resilient creatures.
Have a look at the trailer by following this link.