An interesting night at the cinema

Before we saw the film last night, I'd thought of doing a spoof blog. I was going to write about the exciting new discovery of an as yet unknown Hitchcock film, that had been found in a metal box in someone's attic, during a clear-out.  The Bees, the spoof was to suggest, was the follow-up to the very successful suspense/horror, The Birds. But made several years later in the mid - seventies after Hitchcock had in theory retired.  

Des Abeilles et Des Hommes deserves better. This was a beautifully produced and passionate film about the importance of bees to the environment and our food chain, and the affects mankind has been having on the bee's life cycle. The story filmed bee-keepers in Switzerland, China, Australia and America. In the last few years there have been regular reports in the press and campaigns about the demise of bees and what might be causing it. The film didn't attempt to dramatise the situation. However the understanding of bees and the alternative ways of managing them, from the large-scale commercial to the smaller independents, helped emphasize the wider concerns about biodiversity, and the need to protect and respect the natural world. 

A lot of us eat honey. Usually we'll buy it from a supermarket. Contact with bees and beekeepers is often rare. Funnily enough in our home town Bradford on Avon, there are local beekeepers whose honey we used to buy at the W.I's fortnightly market, in the Riverside Inn. There was also (supermarket bought) a Rumanian honey, which gave my homemade bread a delicious flavour. Here in France, we are lucky to have someone in Crissay (mentioned in previous blogs) who, with the help of a few bees, produces the most delicious honey. Alexandra Carré-Laubigeau, and husband Xavier were both at the film last night. 

What was so interesting were the different personalities and attitudes of the bee-keepers, as well as the bees. Regardless of the scale of operation, the business of honey (like wine) had, as was shown in the film, been developed over several generations by successive family members. But now, as one big American honey producer stated, his grand-father simply wouldn't understand or recognise the way he, the grandson, operated the business. There's a lot of money at stake and needs must, in order to keep earning it.

We've all seen pictures of farm animals being moved around and across continents.  But moving bees! The film showed different methods, from smaller packets of bees that were individually placed in large 'Swan Vesta' type match boxes with wire meesh air holes, put into in a sort of jiffy bag and then posted to wherever. There were bees in bigger boxes, that were wheeled to the post office in a supermarket trolley, registered, then put on a conveyor belt to disappear into the sorting system like any other parcel.  

In terms of animal husbandry we can become very emotional when they aren't looked after properly. But insects? Sounds laughable? Bees aren't soft and cuddly are they? They don't make ideal pets. However as the film revealed, bees can be very badly treated and at times last night, it was difficult to watch. 

One very large-scale commercial honey producer that we saw throughout the film, has thousands of hives and thousands of bees. He employs several thousand individuals, some of whom drive thousands of miles as they transport their bees on a pollination merry-go round across the States, before returning to the company headquarters, where they set off from. The bees are transported in their hives which are packed into containers on large trucks - a bit like driving your dog along in the car, shut up in his kennel, with no opportunity to get out - sometimes for over 24 hours. As one of the drivers explained, bees shouldn't be shut up like that for very long. They need to pee. Trying telling several thousand bees to cross their legs. I don't think so.  On their return the bees were unpacked. It was obvious something had gone wrong with a number of the hives. When they were opened all the bees were found dead at the bottom. Bees can get attacked by mites and other parasites, which can destroy a bee at different stages of development. But there's also considerable stress for the bees in being moved around and not being able to follow their normal cycle. This honey producer's point of view was that he didn't have time to find out what was wrong.

Des Abeilles et Des Hommes also introduced us to the world of the small-scale independent bee-keeper. Their beehives were well away from the noise and upheaval of the modern world,  in the Swiss Alps and a remoter desert area in the States. There wasn't an attempt to say that bigger is bad or smaller is best. But the relationship between the keepers and their bees was very different. In this film, it was amongst the independents that you saw the passion for the insect as well as the product.

The success of Des Abeilles et Des Hommes, was to re-awaken our understanding of the importance of this industrious creature to our own existence.  There was moment in the film when the hives belonging to a small producer were found, despite his dedication, to have contracted a deadly virus. All the bees had to be destroyed. The fumigator arrived to carry out the task. She turned to the bee-keeper and said 'I am so very sorry'. It was like losing one's entire family.

http://www.morethanhoneyfilm.com