Gilles Therieu 2004 52 minutes English and French editions on one DVD (VID30) A beautiful, serious, moving and thoughtful film exploring the relationship between bees and humankind. The film depicts how from the beginning of human civilisation the honeybee has been associated with power and wealth - typically one of the world's first coins showed a bee - and the bee has been used over centuries as signature, symbol and ideal. The film gives cultural insight, and there is plenty of accurate apicultural detail too, explaining honey hunting, how beekeeping evolved, and the international apicultural situation today, with beautiful sequences from different countries showing facets of apiculture - from the smallest scale to the largest. A theme of the film is that the bee is not domesticated, the bee is not constrained. However, after 1851 when the frame hive was invented, man at last became master of bees and able to manipulate them. This meant that today the bee has become constrained, as frame hives allowing the manipulation and worldwide spread of Apis mellifera, have also brought about the devastating spread of honeybee diseases and predators that bees and beekeepers face today. The film provides excellent information for anyone new to apiculture, and there is plenty to engage experienced beekeepers. All the current issues are briefly covered: Varroa, GM pollen, antibiotic residues in honey, Apimondia, the internet, marketing, and even that trade in honey has been associated with the Al Qaeda network. Finally, a beekeeper is shown who has adopted a 'new'approach - allowing bees to build combs naturally and being sensitive to their needs. The message is that this is the way we need to go. Highly recommended for everyone with an interest in bees. PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to provide technical support for any DVD or video we supply. We cannot be responsible for incompatibilities with your system