TriBeCa Diaries #8: Green Porno

It's perfection, having the always extremely erotic Isabella Rossellini as the focus of Green Porno, her eight-film debut as director (along with co-director Jody Shapiro). The subject of these charming, inventively educational one-minute shorts?

The sex lives of insects. In each, an elaborately costumed Rossellini portrays a bug--a firefly, a house fly, a spider, a snail, a bee, an earthworm, and so on--and sensually explains the ins and outs of insect copulation. Always capped with effective cinematic punchlines and beautifully simple art direction (I particularly found the end of the spider film hilarious), Green Porno is Rossellini's optimistic attempt to bring short films into a new paradigm--one which might make it possible for short-form directors to actually make new media cash with their efforts (Rossellini hosted a TriBeCa panel discussion about just this issue). Her lovely Green Porno series should certainly enjoy this fate. Here are some pix of Isabella in her various buggy guises!