Mexico butterfly film enjoys glittering premiere

A glitzy world premiere of Mexican film Flight Of The Butterflies wowed an audience that included Mexico's President Felipe Calderon.

The event was hosted by the Mexico Tourism Board and the Embassy of Mexico at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC where more than 400 guests gathered for the Imax 3D screening.

Flight Of The Butterflies tells the intriguing tale of the Monarch butterfly and a scientist's resourceful 40-year search to find its secret Mexico hideaway during its winter season.

The film shows the eye-catching spectacle as millions of Monarch butterflies migrate over the course of a year from Canada, down through the United States and into the isolated 10,000ft peaks of Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains before making the return journey back again.

President Calderon, who hails from Morelia, Michoacan and grew up near the butterfly sanctuaries, said: "We must remain committed to the conservation of these fragile creatures and their threatened habitats."

The Monarch butterfly reserve in Mexico was made a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2008.