CANE TOADS: THE CONQUEST
“It’s not really an obsession, it’s just a great subject matter for a filmmaker,” says Mark Lewis of the humble cane toad, the focus of two of his feature-length documentaries to date. The first, the 1988 Cane Toads: An Unnatural History was a cult hit and BAFTA award winner.
While you may’ve thought one film would be enough, when Lewis reels off the cane toad’s unusual attributes – its toxin that people reportedly get high on, its ubiquity in souvenir shops, its cruel use as a cricket ball, the cast of colourful characters that surround it – you start to see otherwise. “It’s a great environmental story about biological control, about progress,” says Lewis. Certainly, as Lewis comments, “[The cane toad] has gone way beyond anyone’s wildest expectations in terms of its range.” You could say the same for the film; to Lewis’ immense satisfaction (“It’s like cooking a meal for friends … and when you deliver the meal and see people’s faces light up,”) Cane Toads: The Conquest was very well received at Sundance – probably the strangest anti-hero to grace their screens. Despite being “Absolutely, distinctly Australian,” says Lewis, “It’s always been really universal … every country has an invasive species.”
Since 1935 when 102 of the Bufo Marinus or Giant Neotropical Toad were dropped onto Queensland soils in an effort to eradicate the cane beetle, it has certainly invaded to its heart’s content. It is now responsible for the endangerment of many native species including lizards, snakes and crocodiles. Locals have increasingly retaliated; in 2005 one MP even so far as to suggest using golf clubs to make a blood sport of them. Such a sport could barely make a dent; the toads now number in the billions. What they do bring out is extreme reactions. “Two or three years ago someone in the Northern Territory jumped up and down and said they’d found a large cane toad the size of a small dog,” says Lewis, “That one press citation popped up in more than 600 newspapers all over the world!” Lewis laughingly compares this to a news item on Kevin Rudd that might show up on page 18.
A hot topic on newspaper pages is certainly one worth revisiting on the silver screen. While many characters from the first pop up again, including the young girl Monica who kept a cane toad as a pet, “Right from the get-go both films are extremely different.” Most crucially, Cane Toads: The Conquest is shot in 3D. Describing the format as a, “Fabulous toy,” for any filmmaker, by using 3D Lewis really amps up the movie’s blockbuster credentials. Will this little homebred flick conquer amongst the ferocious cane toads of the film industry? Only time can tell.
Fri Jun 11, 7pm, Event Cinema 5, George St, Sydney, $15-17, sff.org.au
