The Vancouver International Film Festival is no stranger to pushing boundaries on screen. So it comes as no surprise that Andreas Johnsen’s documentary BUGS adjusts our gastronomic expectations by framing the titular creepy crawlers at the centre of our dinner plates.

This road movie plucks chef Ben Reade and food researcher Josh Evans out of The Nordic Food Lab (a houseboat moored in a Danish harbour) and sets them on a global jaunt in pursuit of the history, culture and questionable future of bugs as a ‘silver bullet’ in the sustainable food source movement.

Johnsen’s breezy film challenges the common North American approach to entomophagy as a chocolate covered novelty, culling a range of perspectives from curious chefs interested in elevating the culinary profile of bugs to not only the indigenous cultures that have embraced them as a delicacy but also the corporations that threaten their commodification.

Like any good film at the Festival, BUGS is incredibly thought-provoking, giving eco-conscious gourmands enough on the unsuspectingly thorny matter of bug-eating to whet their appetites for just a little bit more. Catch one of the three screening detailed below…

September 30th, 3:30PM | October 5th, 4:15PM | October 12th, 7:30PM | Tickets HERE