I am interested in bees. I used to keep them. They are interesting little creatures. Most people don’t know it but once you’ve been stung a time or two you tend to develop immunity to bee sting. In other words, for most people, the sting doesn’t hurt any more though it can be a bit painful getting there.
So the story appeals to me. It’s because I like bees. I’ve raised them and I know the little things about how they swarm, why they swarm, and how to catch them and provide them with their own little protected place where they can produce honey. And, needless-to-say, I like to eat the stuff they produce. Most people do even if they don’t like bees.
But the story, though interesting, is not really that emotional. It’s just informative. Of course, you do feel for the families who live in the streets because their homes have been foreclosed on. Even as interested as I am in bee keeping and the fact that these foreclosed homes in Florida provide a place for swarming bees to live, the clip struggles to hold my interest for the duration of its run.
The video runs exactly 4 minutes and twenty-five seconds – a little long for a focus piece on bees. I would have liked to see more about the displaced families due to foreclosure and a little less of the bees.
Very little action; but, the storyline transitioned smoothly. I also liked the quality of video and the sequence of scene presentation. But I did not like that there was so little action. Like I say, the video held my attention because of my experience with bee keeping. But if I were not a bee keeper, I probably would have left the video for something a little more emotional with a little more action that lasted about a minute less.
This is what I think the majority of people would do, especially the younger generation who have been raised on hyperactive video games and glitzy, unrealistic, surrealistic MTV cuts.
So, do I think the video works? Not really. It’s a good documentary; it’s not all that entertaining or emotionally intriguing. It’s just a video about a guy that catches bees in a neighborhood with high foreclosure rates.
Oh, yes! There is a religious and humanitarian element to it which one must appreciate simply because the nun-looking person makes honey to give away and wax candles to use in prayer service. I suppose I should care about that, and I do to some degree, but not enough to watch three minutes of bee catching to get to that part of the video.
All-in-all, I rate the storyline about 3 on a scale from one to ten, even though technically it is well orchestrated with quality images in a pleasing mix of edited video and stills. Perhaps I should give the producer and technical staff an 8 on the same scale.
Go see it. You may agree, maybe not.
The Beekeeper’s Lament
American Album
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