Don't (1975)

Born onto what looks like the surface of a tennis ball, we follow the life of a caterpillar that's surrounded from the start by creatures that look like they are looking for a nice juicy meal! It's surroundings are riddled with dangers as kids play - routinely trampling all before them and predators take more of an interest, as our critter starts to feed and grow - a continuous cycle to fatten it up before evolution into a thing of beauty. The close-up photography here is creatively presented sparing us little of the brutality of the bug eat bug world (especially the mantis) in which survival is certainly no given. The time-lapse imagery almost has you cheering on the creature dangling precariously from a branch as we begin to recognise the features of a beautiful Monarch butterfly about to emerge. There's no narration, just natural sounds to augment the uncluttered photography of the birth of this astonishingly complex, colourful and tiny insect. A bit of Chopin towards the end goes down well, too, as it continues to have to avoid pitfalls of nature, butterfly hunters and the more toxic and sterile environment of urbanisation to stay alive.