Hawaii International Film Festival 2009

Bees are vanishing. Examining the enormity of this loss, Jeremy Simmons' documentary THE LAST BEEKEEPER follows the lives of three commercial beekeepers (from South Carolina, Montana, and Washington) over the course of a year as they struggle with Colony Collapse Disorder. When they take their bees to California's enormous annual almond pollination (an event so large it requires nearly all the bees in the US), it becomes painfully and poignantly clear the bind they are in. "If all the bees die, what do you have to live for?" asks one of the beekeepers. It's a question for all of us.