Mar 30, 2010
Festival
The 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 22-May 6), under the auspices of the San Francisco Film Society’s year-round partnership with the Goldman Environmental Prize, will present Colony (Ireland/USA 2009), Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn’s compelling and beautifully photographed documentary probing the mystery surrounding the sudden vanishing of honeybees.
To bee or not to bee is more than an idle question for this country’s professional apiarists; it’s the summation of a precarious, teetering reality with consequences for us all. Facing the combined pressures of a major recession and, beginning in 2006, the dramatic and still unexplained disappearance of huge numbers of honeybees-a phenomenon dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder-many itinerant beekeepers struggle to keep operations afloat. Some, like major player David Mendes, see no future for their offspring in this crucial line of work, which each year brings pollinating honeybees to many staple crops nationwide. The plight of the American beekeeper is at the heart of Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn’s urgently intriguing and visually dazzling documentary, but the film makes clear why their fate should be of no peripheral concern to any of us. The destinies of each species prove inescapably intertwined in this cleverly constructed, at times remarkably candid set of portraits-especially of one tight-knit Christian fundamentalist family of apiarists, the Seppis-as beekeepers band together to find answers to the CCD mystery (leading Mendes and his colleagues to the doors of Bayer, a major pesticide manufacturer). The filmmakers hone in on sensitive negotiations with farmers as well as the tensions and frustrations roiling the Seppi family from within, as a perfect swarm of forces rocks-with particularly strong metaphorical insistence-a devout household otherwise tending toward a hive-like purity of purpose and order. Ultimately, Colony includes us all in a single, delicate balance of symbiotic lives.
As part of SFFS’s Schools at the Festival program, a special screening of Colony will be held for middle and high school students and classroom visits also are being planned for the directors. The pioneering film literacy program celebrates its 19th year of exposing a new generation of viewers to the best in international and independent cinema and providing students the opportunity to meet filmmakers from around the world.
The Film Society has presented the Schools at the Festival outreach program since 1991, bringing thousands of elementary, middle and high school students to select Festival screenings and visiting filmmakers to Bay Area schools. The program aims to broaden insights into other cultures, enhance foreign language aptitude, develop critical thinking skills and inspire a lifelong appreciation of cinema. In 2005, Schools at the Festival expanded to a comprehensive year-round Youth Education program that provides valuable media literacy resources for youth and educators, including more than 50 screenings and media presentations each year in schools and at local theaters as well as filmmaker visits to classrooms; teacher training workshops; media literacy classes; and curriculum support, including lesson plans, study guides and online resources. Since its inception, SFFS Youth Education has served over 55,000 students and 3,000 teachers from 500 educational institutions.
Colony is presented by the Film Society in partnership with the Goldman Environmental Prize as part of the Environmental Film Series, designed to foster among students and adult audiences a greater understanding of global environmental issues and an appreciation of the monumental efforts of small-scale grassroots activism around the world.
The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest prize for grassroots environmentalists. Founded in 1990 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman, the Prize currently awards $150,000 annually to each of six activists from six continental regions. Nominated confidentially by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals, recipients are chosen by an international jury of experts on the basis of their sustained and important environmental achievements. The Prize offers these environmental heroes the recognition, visibility and credibility their efforts deserve. Learn more at www.goldmanprize.org.
For tickets and information, go to www.sffs.org or call 925-866-9559.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.