EP030 - I’m With the People (and the Butterflies) w/ Rena Effendi

Meet Rena Effendi—National Geographic photographer, and first-time filmmaker whose SEARCHING FOR SATYRUS just won the top doc prize at the Austin Film Festival. This walk is pure magic—seemingly in honor of her butterfly-hunting film, monarch butterflies flit all around us like they know something the rest of us don't. Rena's film traces her hunt for one of the world's rarest butterflies, named after her father—a Soviet-era lepidopterist who collected 90,000 specimens before his untimely death. This unique species flies only once a year, on a mountaintop, above 10,000 feet, and along the militarized border between Azerbaijan and Armenia—two countries at war for decades. Just five people had ever seen the Satyrus Effendi—and that’s when Rena enters the story.

She’s got a lot to say about complicated family stories, layers of secrets, and life in the collapsing Soviet Union. Rena unpacks her jump from medium-format still photos to motion picture storytelling, building teams vs. working solo, and why neutrality matters when you're documenting war—even when it's your own country. 

Plus: a cowboy guitarist on a bicycle, honky-tonk dancing at the White Horse, and why documentary photographers make fearless filmmakers. A woman of the people, and of the butterflies, Rena Effendi is the real deal.

 

DISCUSSION LINKS:
SEARCHING FOR SATYRUS (2025) | PAST LIVES (2023) | HONEYLAND (2019)

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction—Budapest or Istanbul?
01:00 Searching for Satyrus and the Austin Film Festival Win
02:00 Monarch Butterflies and the Rare Satyrus Effendi
04:00 First Time in Austin, First Film
05:00 From Office Job to Photographer—The Magnum Moment
08:00 Collapsing Soviet Union and Standing in Food Queues
10:00 Father's Death and Choosing Butterflies Over Geology
13:00 The Craft of Pinning Butterflies Like a Jeweler
14:00 Early Photography—Documenting Mahala's Transformation
16:00 City Symphonies and Capturing Disappearing Identity
18:00 Story Arcs in Still Photography
19:00 The Dying Mother—Last Picture in the Series
21:00 Austin's Transformation and Tech Bro Architecture
24:00 Birth of the Film—Googling Her Father's Name
26:00 The Butterfly Named After Her Father
27:00 Discovering a Half-Sister at Age 14
30:00 Healing Through Art—Looking at Father Through New Lens
32:00 2020 War and Gaining Access to Habitat
33:00 Building the Team—Producers and National Geographic Grant
36:00 Leadership Challenges of Filmmaking vs. Photography
37:00 Mom's Resistance and Opening Up
40:00 Kevin Andrew—Picking and Pedaling Through Austin
43:00 First Impressions of Austin and White Horse
45:00 Growing Up in War-Torn Culture
47:00 Neutrality and Non-Judgment
49:00 Artists vs. Journalists—The Blurry Line
51:00 Speed Round—Past Lives, Stay True to Story, Kill Your Darlings
54:00 Where to Find the Film