Maratus

The subject of “citizen scientists” is at the core of Maratus, filmmaker Simon Cunich's touching documentary about Australian street cleaner and amateur photographer Stuart Harris, who captures an image one day in the woods near Canberra of an unknown type of spider with a beautiful blue color beneath its exoskeleton. When Dr. Jurgen Otto, an entomologist, sees the image that Harris took, he encourages the latter to go back and find one of the creatures. Thus begins Harris's multi-year ordeal of returning to the scene of the original sighting again and again, and always coming up empty-handed. A man who feels that he never lived up to his potential, Harris takes his “failure” personally, producing a sadness that is somewhat reinforced by Otto's rather detached way of communicating with Harris. A story about an odd couple who embarked on a quixotic and ultimately revelatory mission, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)