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Microcosmos (1996)
7.9/10on IMDb
Released
Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou make a stretch of meadow feel as big as a forest. The camera built for the film puts the grass at eye level, and the film gives tiny, easily missed encounters the space of a full scene.
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Life in the Undergrowth (2005)
9.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Start with “Taking to the Air.” David Attenborough shows how insects use flight once they're airborne. Ultra-slow motion makes a bluebottle flying upside down and a dragonfly catching prey much easier to follow.
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My Garden of a Thousand Bees (2021)
Released
In one Bristol backyard, filmmaker Martin Dohrn keeps coming back until he can follow individual wild bees. Lenses he made himself get close enough to catch a yellow-faced bee defending her nest from a wasp.
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Tiny World (2020)
8.8/10on IMDb
First aired
This Paul Rudd-narrated series picks out the smallest residents of one habitat at a time. Try “Reef” for an underwater change of scale, with close-up footage that gives the tiny animals time to prepare for a big night on the coral reef.
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Spider House
Alice Roberts and entomologist Tim Cockerill go into a spider-filled house to investigate what the animals do there. The BBC Four special uses close-up photography to investigate a particularly familiar mystery. How does a spider end up trapped in the bathtub?
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A Real Bug's Life (2024)
7.1/10on IMDb
First aired
A forest edge in Tennessee and a pond in England each get treated as a whole world. In the second season's behind-the-scenes episode, you can see the crew working with unusually small subjects, from keeping up with insects on the run to filming among army ants.
More about A Real Bug's Life7
Hidden Kingdoms (2014)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Running a regular route at ground level can be a feat of speed for a young sengi. In this BBC series, moving cameras follow that tiny mammal through the savanna. Look for the making-of material to see how the filmmakers dramatized some of the action.
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Wings of Life (2013)
Released
The scale here is a flower. High-speed and time-lapse photography give you time to see a visitor arrive and a plant change. Bees and butterflies share the screen with hummingbirds and bats, so the film is a useful introduction to how differently pollination can look.
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Bugs That Rule the World (2025)
8.2/10on IMDb
First aired
PBS puts researchers alongside the insects they study. After the opening episode on declining insect populations, try “Eat or Be Eaten” to see what predatory insects do up close, including how a stick-like mantis disguises itself.
More about Bugs That Rule the World10
Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure
Two insects carry this giant-screen film, a praying mantis and a butterfly from Borneo. Shot on location and in a purpose-built studio, the 3D photography gives a small patch of the rainforest enough depth for the paths of hunter and prey to feel like journeys.
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Attenborough's Ant Mountain
Two wood ant societies in the Swiss Jura anchor a story about life at colony scale. Small lenses and endoscopes follow scouts, workers, and queens from inside the ants’ world. This shorter international edition comes from the same production that the BBC aired as Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants.
More about Attenborough's Ant Mountain12
Learning to See: The World of Insects
Follow photographer Robert Oelman and his assistant Christian Lopez as they look for insects in South American rainforests. Jake Oelman's documentary gives you a chance to see how the searching and close-up photography go together before the images reach an exhibition wall.
More about Learning to See: The World of Insects13
David Attenborough's Micro Monsters
Try “Courtship” if you want to see the signals and displays that go into finding a mate at this scale. The close-up footage comes from a project originally filmed for 3D. The ABC edition puts courtship alongside episodes on conflict and colonies.
More about David Attenborough's Micro Monsters14
Tardigrades: Life on the Extreme
Raphaël Hitier follows researchers trying to explain how some tardigrades withstand punishing conditions. Animation inspired by electron microscopy recreates the tiny animals’ surroundings between visits to the lab. In French, ARTE released the film as Tardigrade, l’animal indestructible.
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Secrets of the Bees (2026)
First aired
Bertie Gregory and entomologist Samuel Ramsey bring the focus inside a honeybee hive. Custom-built camera rigs and probe lenses make it possible to see the colony's architecture from within. Start here if you'd like to understand the work the bees do out of sight.
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