Director: Markus Imhoof           Writers: Markus Imhoof and Kerstin Hoppenhaus

95min    US Documentary

Bees are our future but the future’s not bright according to this important documentary that examines why our favourite buzzing insects are gradually being decimated by a killer disease: ‘colony collapse disorder’.

Pollination is key to our food production and bees pollinate most of our plants. Markus Imhoof shows, with a fascinating array of  cameras, how these complex creatures observe stylised rituals as they go about their business. The hive has the same level of activity as a small industrial town; the bees conducting a minutiae of tasks and observing a strict pecking-order that’s both intriguing and frightening.

Narrated by the melliflous tones of John Hurt, this visually alarming doc switches between a traditional German bee-keeper and the highly advanced and artificial Californian methods showing how, for some inexplicable reason, these insect are being exterminated by an alien parasite.  Imhoof remarks that bees are much the same as humans with their primary motivations of fear and greed but what is causing the bees to die?  Medication, stress, electromagnetic forces?  Whatever it is, More Than Honey is a buzz-worthy wake-up call that we should all heed before it’s too late. Scary! MT

NARRATED BY JOHN HURT MORE THAN HONEY IS OUT ON DVD/BLU FROM THE 21 OCTOBER 2013