Colony

COLONY is a visually stunning documentary that takes a bee's-eye view of the unprecedented catastrophe in the world of the honeybee. The current crisis dates back to 2004 when a Pennsylvania beekeeper opened up his hives and found that eighty percent of his bees had vanished. Though it's estimated that one-third of the fruit and vegetables we eat depend on pollination by honeybees, more than one-third of the United States' bee population has recently disappeared. COLONY visits veteran apiarists as well as Californian newbies. Calling themselves the last cowboys (beeboys?) because they migrate with their animals, they put their hives on a truck and hit the road all year. From orange groves in Florida to cranberries in Massachusetts, from blueberries in Maine to almonds in Washington and apples in California, they float like bees from place to place. Once you realize how intrinsic bees are to the food chain and the ecosystem in general, you'll see that the collapse in their population puts our colony at risk, as well as theirs. – B.B.