The Films That Make You Think Film Club will be hosting the sixth film of the 2012 season and the final film before taking a summer break on June 12 at 7 p.m. at the West Parry Sound District Museum. The June movie will be Vanishing of the Bees, the visually stunning and fascinating documentary on the life of bees and the subsequent concern over the catastrophic collapse of planetary bee populations.
“Bees have been cultivated for literally centuries with little issue until the past few decades when troubling cases of complete collapse of literally hundreds of thousands of bees have been occurring,” said Glen Hodgson, the film club’s founder. “It is both perplexing to beekeepers and potentially devastating to the people who rely on healthy bee populations to produce their crops.”
Honeybees
Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables, Hodgson said.
Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.
“I keep bees myself and I have just been amazed at how gentle and industrious they are,” said Hodgson, “I think more people would be concerned about the loss of bees if they realized what a high percentage of our food relies on bees by way of bee pollination of food crops. Their decline could be disastrous.”
Ellen Page
The film is narrated by Ellen Page, the celebrated actor from the movie Juno and other roles.
“This film series is non-partisan and designed, as the title suggests, to inspire people to think about some key issues that we are facing our communities, our country and our world,” Hodgson said.
Admission is a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $7 for students and seniors and tickets are available at the door unless the film is sold out.
More information on the films being offered can be found at the West Parry Sound Museum or by emailing waubeek@hotmail.com.