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Documentary filmmakers Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer spent four years following giant swamp rats decimating the Louisiana coastline—and the local hunters committed to stopping them.

For Bay Area filmmakers Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, it’s the suspense of not knowing where a story will end up that makes documentaries so exciting.

When they started working on 'Rodents of Unusual Size' four years ago, they didn’t know if they’d be able to gain the trust of the Louisiana communities fighting to eradicate nutria—an invasive species of monstrous, 20-pound swamp rats wreaking havoc on the wetlands that prevent coastal erosion and help protect residents from hurricanes.

“People were really used to TV crews coming and caricaturing them, blowing their stories up and kind of making fun of them,” says Costello. But Costello, Metzler and Springer weren’t just another reality television crew. The trio shared a genuine curiosity about the nutria hunters and their families, forming close relationships with their subjects on over a dozen visits to Louisiana during hunting four seasons.

The filmmakers are no strangers to unusual stories. They routinely tackle projects most would dismiss as impossible, whether that’s documenting the eccentric community around the stagnant Salton Sea or the unclassifiable, tumultuous band of Fishbone.