Last winter, the UK and Ireland lost more than a fifth of their honeybee population, a new parochial manifestation of a chilling global phenomenon; US beekeepers have lost more than a third of their hives in the past two years. One minute, the stripy ladies – and they are all ladies - are toiling away, tending their young, pollinating pretty flowers and making honey. Look again and they’ve disappeared without a trace. Meh, you say, there’s plenty more insects where that came from. Well, friend, we hope you like bread because that’s all you’ll be eating soon.
Without bees, as we learn in this engaging film, a third of our crops will disappear overnight. All our fruits and vegetables depend on the bee for pollination. The rest is rice and silence.
The plight of the bees is beautifully and comprehensively addressed in this smart, heartfelt documentary from George Langworthy and Maryam Henein. Stacked into neat thematic chapters that could easily work in a classroom setting, the filmmakers have created a campaigning piece in language and images that may be understood by a six-year old but applauded by adults. Though hardly the most cinematic nature film this year, what this (necessarily) talking heads-heavy piece lacks in filmic grandiloquence, it makes up for by borrowing the beats of a disaster flick and the moves of a detective thriller.
Just what is causing Colony Collapse Disorder as it’s called? Dismissing popular tabloid myths out of hand – Wi-Fi, mobile phones, controlling Russian satellite systems (yes, really) – The Vanishing of the Bees asks whodunit and finds many smoking guns at the scene. Modern commercial hives have brought about practices – the annual decapitation of the queen bee, feeding the youngsters glucose syrup – that buzz right into the face of 30 million years of evolution. There are new parasites and pollutants to contend with. But mostly there are nicotinoid pesticides, marketed under trigger-happy names like Raid. These are the prime suspects in the great CCD mystery. France has already banned them. Let’s hope that others see this scary, compelling film and follow suit.