About the film

"Green Porno" is a series of short films on animal sexual behavior. The series, which began in 2008 and aired on The Sundance Channel, is conceived, written, and directed by its star, Isabella Rossellini.

In the eight films that comprise the first season, Rossellini enacts the mating rituals of various insects and other animals (including the dragonfly, spider, bee, praying mantis, worm, snail and housefly) with cardboard cut-outs and foam-rubber sculptures. Season two is devoted to marine life. Season three deals with ocean life threatened by commercial fishing.

Rossellini says that she does a great deal of research before each episode and then spends a while determining how to translate that research into “something visual and how to make it comical”. The goal, according to Rossellini is to be both entertaining and educational.

Over the course of Green Porno's three seasons, the focus of the show has shifted. Season one dealt exclusively with insects that people can realistically encounter on a daily basis. The second season focused on sea creatures but also included an episode on the sexual organs. For the third and smallest season, Green Porno adopted an overt environmental theme, specifically one which focused on the concept of over-fishing contrasted with the mating habits of animals commonly used as food. In season three, Rossellini is joined by biologist Claudio Campagna