Toronto filmmaker Jody Shapiro has worked on some unusual projects. After all, he has produced several of Winnipeg auteur Guy Maddin’s films, including My Winnipeg and The Saddest Music in the World. So his latest project — a series of ‘pornos’ about insect sex — is all in a day’s work.

Shapiro just wrapped production in New York City on Green Porno — five Sundance Channel mobile shorts about the procreation habits of insects, developed, written by and starring Isabella Rossellini (Infamous, The Saddest Music in the World).

‘It’s the down-and-dirty world of insect sex,’ explains Shapiro, who directed all five episodes and is also producing along with Rick Gilbert and Rossellini. ‘It’s the real bare-bones science, but acted out by Isabella in a sexual way — these are pornos after all.’

Shot over five days last week in a Brooklyn warehouse, the $50,000 budget on the five mobile shorts was financed entirely by Sundance Channel U.S. The shorts will premiere on mobile devices and the Internet in the spring, followed by broadcast on Sundance as interstitials.

Each of the 60-second comedic films takes an artistic and humorous approach to the curious ways certain creatures procreate — particularly insects that have violent and bloodthirsty sexual habits. Rossellini, who conceived of the original idea for the series, dresses up in a colorful costume as an insect and interacts with her mate, which is either a life-size three-dimensional foam or two-dimensional intricate paper model version of her insect partner.

Shapiro isn’t fazed by the rather odd subject matter.

‘Between the glass legs filled with beer for Isabella’s character in The Saddest Music in the World or the enormous talking belly that filled in as Roberto Rossellini in My Dad Is 100 Years Old…I’d say this one is just par for the course,’ says Shapiro, who produced both of these Maddin-directed films which starred Rossellini.

‘These Green Porno shorts are really quite hilarious,’ he adds. ‘They are like Pee-wee’s Playhouse meets Electric Company.’

The shorts have a graphic look specifically conceived for smaller screens such as cell phones and mobile devices.

‘We use very simple, clear, colorful backgrounds and static shots — not a lot of camera moves,’ explains Shapiro. ‘There is not a lot of cluttering in the frame, and we use lots of close-ups.’

Rossellini previously completed three shorts in the Green Porno series, which will screen at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. A selection from the full series of eight shorts will also screen at the Berlin International Film Festival. Maximum Films International holds all rights outside of the U.S.