On Wednesday 7 March NYU Sydney will be screening ‘Sixteen Legs’ an award-winning behind-the-scenes glimpse of the effort required to tell a natural history story with 7 years of filming, 27 years of scientific research and over 250 million years of evolutionary detail. The film features research conducted by NYU Sydney biology instructor Sean Blamires.

This is a nature documentary like no other. Featuring Neil Gaiman alongside appearances by Stephen Fry, Tara Moss, Adam Hills, and Mark Gatiss, and with a score co-written and performed by Kate Miller-Heidke, it will premiere in Sydney on 18 March.

In a special presentation of the short film, followed by a Q&A, the film’s co-director and writer will showcase how everything hinged on capturing one key sequence: the kinky mating of giant prehistoric spiders the size of a dinner-plate. Journey into a shadowy world of strange rock formations to meet animals that outlasted the dinosaurs, survived the splitting of the continents and that have endured the entirety of human civilisation in Australia’s deepest caves.