This very short film, enigmatically titled Hinterlands Who's Who, is so beguiling in its look and tone that - at least for the first 30 seconds - I was genuinely convinced I was watching a clip form a hitherto neglected mid-70s Canadian nature documentary. Footage of wood spiders (apparently the cleverest of spiders) building webs is accompanied by a voiceover that sedately and authoritatively explains that different drugs have wildly different effects on a spider's behaviour. Cotton buds are used to rub a variety of psychoactive drugs - LSD, marijuana, alcohol etc - into the abdomens of these poor creatures.
Call me stupid, but it was only when we hit THC - the active ingredient in marijuana - that it dawned on me what I was seeing had absolutely nothing to do with spiders and everything to do with our own bizarre appetites and their mostly calamitous consequences. Rarely has satire been so brief, funny and effective.
Thanks to poster Darren Arthur for sending me the link.
