Stranger Says:

Chefs Josh Evans and Ben Reade stand in middle of the Australian bush holding Witchetty grubs—large wood-eating larvae of moths—that Evans will later describe as tasting of “roasted red peppers, garlic, and nuts.” Older Aboriginal women led the chefs here, and dug up the delicacies for the young men. “Can someone show us how to cook these?” Reade asks them. This scene repeats itself throughout the film, throughout the world. Bugs chronicles Evans’s and Reade’s international travels as part of a privately funded project exploring insects as a more sustainable protein for the industrialized world. But the film’s heart is how it movingly captures each chef’s personal journey to understanding the depth and value of local cuisines—the very ones threatened by global food systems. (ANGELA GARBES)