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Queen of the Sun

Presented by The Colonial Theatre at The Colonial Theatre

May 6-May 12, 2011

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“Whether or not you like honey on your morning muffin, you ought to be concerned with the health of the nation’s bees. That’s because a complex phenomenon called “colony collapse disorder” has caused the loss of 5 million bee colonies in the United States, according to Taggart Siegel’s documentary Queen of the Sun.

And that’s important because, as Slow Food’s Carlo Petrini tells us, “If we kill all the bees, there will be no agriculture.” This is hyperbole, but perhaps justified by the fact that some 40 percent of U.S. food production depends on bee pollination.

Siegel talks to beekeepers, scientists, ecologists and farmers in the United States, Europe and Australia about the urgency of dealing with the disorder. The possible causes are many, and the film singles out a few, including the growth of monoculture (devoting large areas of farmland to a single crop), the use of chemical pesticides and the mechanization of beekeeping. Organic farming practices are cited as a crucial part of the solution.

Among the film’s more intriguing revelations is the key role California’s almond crop plays in the nation’s bee industry. We’re told that vast numbers of bees are gathered from around the country and trucked to the Central Valley for what one observer describes as the “single greatest pollination event in the world.”

Viewers may recall Siegel, a former Bay Area resident now living in Portland, Ore., for his amiable 2005 documentary The Real Dirt on Farmer John, about eccentric Illinois farmer John Peterson. Siegel still has his sense of humor, mixing sober facts and figures here with lighthearted material (dancers decked out as flowers and bees, a few animated bits).

He even serves up a likable oddball, 'bee historian' Yvon Achard, who brushes his huge mustaches against a piece of honeycomb loaded with bees and declares that they like it. (It’s his considered opinion that the bees choose the beekeeper, and not the reverse.)

Some of the film’s more reverential moments are a bit much – I could have used less rhapsodizing about the sacredness of bees – but in all the film is convincing, and it winds up with a to-do list for those who want to help.” (Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle)

Directed by Taggart Siegel. US. 2010. 83 min. Collective Eye. Blu ray.