BERLIN – The Italian actress and model Isabella Rossellini, who has been starring in big-screen movies for 20 years, is making her directorial debut with a series of short films designed for cellphones and computers. Rossellini's one-minute shorts are dramatic reenactments of insects copulating called Green Porno, a name designed to draw search engine traffic.

"What do people mostly go online for, but to look at porn?" explains Canadian filmmaker Jody Shapiro, Rossellini’s co-director. "So we put 'Porno' in, and when people Google it, maybe we'll get lucky and Green Porno will come up. We might as well take advantage of the delivery system."

In each episode, Rossellini assumes the role of the male insect. "Seeing Isabella Rossellini mount a housefly from behind while smiling at the camera," Shapiro remarked, "I can't imagine many people would have ever thought they’d see that."

Each of the one-minute shorts explains how insects copulate. Shot on high-definition video, and featuring cartoonish sets and costumes, the simple colorful shorts are designed to hold up well on portable video devices.

For their succinctness and wit, Rossellini's eight movies resemble a skillfully executed animated cartoon from The New Yorker. And despite a substantial budget, the films also have a wonderful do-it-yourself quality that should come as an affirmation to every auteur aspirant on YouTube.

Three of the Green Porno shorts premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival last week. In the Q&A session following Saturday's premiere, Rossellini said she quickly realized how compressed the product would have to be: "When you're watching on the small screen, it really needs to be between 2-5 minutes."

Shapiro acknowledges how difficult this is: "It's very hard to tell a story in a short amount of time. Advertisers get paid millions of dollars to do something like that."

In the spring, Sundance Channel has plans to distribute the films on the web and through cellphone downloads.

"The Sundance Channel has an initiative to create green programming," Shapiro said, referring to films that raise awareness about environmental issues. "And there's a real push to commission original content for what they term the third screen."

That term, favored by Sundance to describe projects like Green Porno, refers to screens and monitors on portable electronic devices.

While the official Green Porno website, currently under construction, promises that all eight episodes will soon be viewable on the site, Shapiro is uncertain as to Sundance Channel's distribution strategy.

"One of the reasons I love doing this so much is it's such a new field," Shapiro says. "I don't think anybody knows where it's going to go yet. Broadcasters and distributors definitely don't."