Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?

It seems anymore that I prefer documentaries more and more. You can walk away with something to chew on and think about.

The film opens with a topless woman wearing a swarm of honey-bees weaving in a trance-like state. The camera circles her and then cuts to a single honey-bee crawling on a sunflower.

The film updates the story of honey-bees from wonderful world of Disney to today's crisis where hives have been dying off in staggering numbers.

Without honey-bees, most of the fruits, flowers and foods we love go without pollination and do not reproduce. It seems as though only New Zealand has avoided the mass bee die-off.

The film balances good information about the crisis with individual stories and people who make us smile, but move the story along.

No 3D. No FX. Just an important story well-told that will be remembered the next time you see a honey-bee.

Other than encouraging more urban bee-keepers (the film ends with a small bit about the repeal of NYC's ban on urban bee-keeping which seemed tacked-on), the film doesn't give the average viewer much hope or many suggestions for personal action. I mean, I don't think I'l be asking if the queen bee of the hive from which the farmer extracted the honey for sale was naturally de-flowered (which is nicely rendered in a simple animation) or was inseminated with the semen of just one drone.

Good for all ages.

"Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?" is the best documentary I have ever seen. It literally changed my life.

So what are the bees telling us? They are telling us not to use pesticides, artificial breeding, GMO's, and other industrial beekeeping practices such as transporting hives hundreds of miles and feeding bees corn syrup. A combination of these practices are what is causing Colony Collapse Disorder and is killing the bees. The things that are killing the bees are also killing the planet. So the short answer is that the bees are telling us to support organic farmers and to boycott industrial agriculture.

I was a vegan for ethical reasons and "Queen of the Sun" showed me that organic beekeeping is not only ethical, it is beneficial to the species and the individual hives; so now I will support my local organic beekeepers by buying organic raw honey.

Before I saw "Queen of the Sun," I had never had organic raw honey before. I imagine most people have not had it either. It is completely different from the clear syrup that you get at the grocery store. It has a completely different look, texture, and taste. Apparently it has a whole bunch of health benefits also.

I strongly urge you to see "Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?" Most of the film consists of interviews with organic beekeepers and it gives insight into these amazing creatures.

Even if you don't see "Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?" I urge you to pay a little extra for organic food and try some organic raw honey from your local beekeepers. Bees are a "keystone species." If they disappear, we will lose about a fourth of our crops. We need to save the bees to ensure our own long term survival.

This is the kind of opinion piece that gives documentaries a bad name. If you want to feel good about yourself for being emotionally invested in a cause, but don't much care about reality, then this film is for you. If you want to learn and think for yourself, look elsewhere.

Here are some things that you will find a lot of:

• interviews with organic beekeepers and pop-science writers

• spiritual statements about nature

• people dressed like hippies

• shots of people staring stoically at things

• cute children used as props

• unscientific implications about the cause of colony collapse disorder

Here are some things you will not find much of:

• nuance

• moral complexity

• multiple points of view

• scientific research

The worst part of this is that the concerns being raised are absolutely legitimate. Agricultural practices like the use of GMO's, pesticides, and mono-cultures have enormous consequences. But rather than making the difficult effort of assessing the actual risks and benefits of different approaches, this film reduces every issue to a literal cartoon where evil corporations are making the poor little queen bee cry.

4/10 because it's at least competently shot and edited.

Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us? is a passionate investigation into the honey bee crisis. It features compelling and stunningly beautiful cinematography and tells the tale of Colony Collapse Disorder through expert analysis and a cast ranging from the well-known (Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva) to the bizarre and charming. This uplifting and enlightening documentary is a must-see for anyone curious about the significance of bees and the impact of their decline on our global food system. Thought-provoking, inspiring, and entertaining - Queen of the Sun is a work of art that is both relevant and delectable.

I just turned it off midway through. It is a highly emotional anthropomorphic group of stories regarding bees with a very low information density, and highly biased against modern industry, and farming. If you want to have some spiritual programming with a positive emotional feedback to encourage learning, then this is the movie for you. If you want to learn about bees, I would recommend another movie.

I gave the review an extra star for the Frenchman with the excellent mustache, and one more for the insight into the almond industry. I am sort of surprised so little time was spent on examining the vectors of CCD within that environment. Though, the bias is very clearly against man made things, and focuses on those points to the exclusion of quasi-natural causes, so I am only sort of surprised.