The moth, originally from Asia, has been the bane of local trees for the past decade, defoliating forests across Southern Ontario. Last year alone, the moth was responsible for de-leafing tens of thousands of forest acreage in the Niagara Peninsula.

"We've been inundated with them for years," said Bakalar, a 45-year-old mature student at Niagara College. "And we're all affected by them."

It was while he was reading the local newspapers concerning the efforts of MPP Tim Hudak and other politicians to implement a spray program that Bakalar decided to create his film - Gypsy: About a Moth.

"Last year, I knew nothing about the moths," he said. "But we needed an issue that is current, and something regular people are interested in."

He and a film crew, made up of students from Niagara College, spent all of last year creating the 21-minute film as part of an independent study for a college film class, even renting a small plane to fly over some of the area's forest.

The film has since won 'Best Student Documentary' at the 2008 Niagara Indie Film Festival, a competition held June 20 and 21 in St. Catharines.

The Film Fest is a juried, national short film and video festival, created nine years ago to foster and promote independent Canadian production.

The film had won a Niagara College Grafiti Award for Best Editing, before entering the Indie Film Fest.

Bakalar served as both director and writer of the $900 film, while Kyle Adam was producer.

The film, which opened the festival, shows the extent of the gypsy moth invasion, how fast they can spread, and what actions can be taken to curb the problem.

"It started out as the story of Barb and Dan Arbuckle," Bakalar told Niagara this Week. "But it morphed into a 'let's take on the government to implement a spray program' film."

He and his crew spent time climbing the political ladder to assemble the voices of as many officials as possible.

"The more I talked to people, the more I realized how little people knew about them," said Bakalar.

In the end, the film became an educational project that helps inform people how to manage the situation of the gypsies.

"It's not about who is responsible," he concluded. "Government spraying programs are just a small part of it."

The film comes to some conclusions to curb the infestation, such as laying out what all needs to be done, and things that will happen if those actions aren't completed.

"It's a movie about unification," said Bakalar. "It's about everyone in the community, not just the government."

Other members of the crew included: Natalie Jennings, Colin Baxter, Kevin Fazekas, Nathan Hoffmann and Bob Mallen.