Horst in Translation ([email protected]) 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.

mingsphinx There are a number of documentaries about bees and most are a labor of love; this one is no different. The makers of this film clearly have a great deal of respect and love for bees. Not a whole lot of new ground is covered as colony collapse has been discussed in many previous works, but the filmography makes this documentary one that is worth watching. They went out of their way to capture the best shot and the final product shows the quality of their work.For the layman, this film provides an inside look at the industrial nature of the apiary business. From breeding a queen to splitting the colony, you get to see how it is done and it is not always a pretty sight.

lreynaert Markus Imhoof made a most necessary documentary about major players in the life chain on earth: bees. He explains very clearly the organization inside a beehive, the evolution of bees as a species and their importance for our food in general.The most important function in a beehive is finding food for the queen and the colony. Fascinating film stock shot by the German scientist Karl von Frisch explains the 'language' of the bees, how they can tell their sisters where they can find the land of plenty, at what angle they have to leave the hive and how they have to travel (their 'waggle dance').The bee population on our planet is dwindling for all kind of reasons: monoculture, pesticides or 'political' measures. In China, Mao ordered his countrymen to kill all sparrows, because they stole grain from the people. But, sparrows live also on insects which are harmful for bees. The result was that in parts of China the bees disappeared. Human beings had (and have) to take over the bee job in order to fertilize their fruit trees. On the other hand, the bees as a species are fighting back. A new dominant bee variant erupted on the American continent: 'killer bees', whose hives 'cannot be reached even by a bear'.This movie underlines impressively the very serious dangers of the dwindling bee population, which could lead to an agricultural catastrophe on earth. Urgent new research is needed to save one of man's main partners on earth. This documentary is a must see for all those interested in the future of mankind.

vep10 What an excellent documentary!!! The cinematography is breath taking and you are able to see bees up close like you've never been able to before. This documentary does an amazing job at exploring the reasons why bees are so important for us. The beekeeping process is fascinating, it shows a small family of beekeepers and the industrialized honey farms! This beautiful film shows the relationship between us and honeybees and makes you want to save them all ! I was on the official website earlier (www.morethanhoneyfilm.com) and it's definitely worth it, they have great pictures to look at :) totally check it out!! you will not regret it, it teaches you a lot!