More Than Honey
With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) takes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia — more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.
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- Cast:
- Fred Jaggi , Randolf Menzel , Heidrun Singer , John Hurt , Charles Berling , Robert Hunger-Bühler
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
The Worst Film Ever
good back-story, and good acting
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
This is a Swiss 90-minute documentary from 3 years ago and it deals from start to finish with honey farmers and the increasing problems in their profession. A lot of it has to do with the unexpected mass mortality of bees these days, for which there is no explanation. That is basically all there is to this documentary. If you are interested in bees, give it a watch, if not then stay away. There is nothing groundbreaking to see here really, but it's a solid, informative piece of filmmaking from start to finish. The writer and director is Markus Imhoof and he's been making movies since the 1970s already. He is way into his 70s now and maybe he retired after this documentary. At least he hasn't done any new films in the last 3 years and there is also nothing under the upcoming section of his body of work. "More than Honey" is actually more famous than I would have expected, because the topic is, in fact, really specific and I am fairly surprised this documentary reached such a great audience. Maybe this also has to do with the awards recognition they managed to get. It won Best Documentary for example at the German Film Awards and it got the honor to be Switzerland's official submission for the Acadmey Awards' foreign language category. Admittedly, a large part of the film is in English though. They follow bee farmers at several locations all around the world and one of them is the United States. So you will need no subtitles for this if you are a native English speaker. But you will for the rest. And even German speakers will need subtitles and not only for the English parts, also for the Swiss German segments as the old Swiss guy with the heavy beard speaks such a distinct version of Schwitzerdütsch that you will have no chance to understand what he is saying without subtitles. That's pretty much it. It's a decent documentary and all in all I recommend it.
There are so many things stacked up against Honey Bees and other Pollinators, so I was shocked to see just how "Big Honey" cares for their bees, and then wonders why their hives are week and unable to defend themselves against disease, virus, mites, and pesticides. After seeing how negatively the Almond Industry affects our bee colonies, I am off Almonds altogether. I am an Organic minded beekeeper, and as such, I can not support the Almond Industry any longer. Too see the factory style of keeping in practice was heartbreaking to say the least. SHAME on "Big Honey". It's no wonder store bought honey tastes nothing like yard honey. When I harvest, each side of every frame of honey tastes and smells different from the rest because each one was created by the bees during different flower's nectar flows. One could be dandelion, another golden rod, another clover, and so on. Such a shame.
This film portrays another example of the cost of factory farms. The facts are presented without judgment. It seemed to me that the bees are defending themselves against the manipulation of their perfectly organized society. One wonders why we humans think we know better when our own societies are totally out of sync with each other and the earth. Now I understand why vegans do not eat honey. I did not realize how much work the bees have to do in order to make their perfect food. The photography is wonderful and the story is gripping so I recommend it highly. I think everyone should see this documentary so we might have more respect for the way we harvest honey. I admit that I am old and grumpy but this film really made me feel sad. I am glad I saw it and am grateful for the enlightenment.
If you don't get the "noughties" reference, there was a song. Actually there are more than one song referring to Honey, as in spouse or at least girlfriend. But we are talking about actual honey here. And the movie has some devastating blows to deliver. It is also about the bees and the way we are treating them.A very interesting and intriguing documentary, it shows that sometimes they have more to offer than fiction movies. Not to mention that they should affect us more. Hopefully it will also take away the fear of bees many of us have, but I do doubt that. Bees should be more afraid of us actually. Watch this fantastic movie, that is heartbreaking too