Directed by Marcus Imhoof, "More than Honey" attempts an investigation into our world's dwindling bee population. Not as interesting as the similarly themed "Vanishing of the Bees", Imhoof's film nevertheless does well to stress the importance of bees - an integral part of our ecosystem - to the survival of the human race.
"More than Honey" focuses on two beekeepers: Fred Jaggi, who lives in Switzerland, and John Miller, a Florida businessman. Both men adopt difficult approaches, Jaggi a traditionalist, Miller a hard-headed capitalist who lends his personal bee colonies to farms in need of pollination. Interviews with both occasionally give way to discussions with scientists and other beekeepers. Other subplots deal with bees being injected with hormones and pesticides, with parasitic mites penetrating bee colonies and with the many Chinese farmers forced to manually pollinate their crops. The film ends with surreal shots of bees flying off into outer space, suggestive of humanity's cosmic connection with even the smallest of organisms. Or perhaps the bees are simply abandoning us, finally ticked off with what we've forced them to endure.
8/10 – Worth one viewing.
"More than Honey" focuses on two beekeepers: Fred Jaggi, who lives in Switzerland, and John Miller, a Florida businessman. Both men adopt difficult approaches, Jaggi a traditionalist, Miller a hard-headed capitalist who lends his personal bee colonies to farms in need of pollination. Interviews with both occasionally give way to discussions with scientists and other beekeepers. Other subplots deal with bees being injected with hormones and pesticides, with parasitic mites penetrating bee colonies and with the many Chinese farmers forced to manually pollinate their crops. The film ends with surreal shots of bees flying off into outer space, suggestive of humanity's cosmic connection with even the smallest of organisms. Or perhaps the bees are simply abandoning us, finally ticked off with what we've forced them to endure.
8/10 – Worth one viewing.