Director's Statement from Singeli Agnew and Joshua Fisher about "Pollen Nation"

From the beginning, we were interested in the idea of a science film that felt more like an American road movie. It was also clear to us that this was not just a story about bees and a little known migratory subculture, but a much larger tale about agriculture, and the human relationship with the natural world.

We started Pollen Nation in the fall of 2006, well before the news of a great bee die-off swept through the media. In the middle of production, two of our characters - Jeff Anderson and Dave Hackenberg - lost a substantial number of hives to what later became known as colony collapse disorder. We were suddenly in the midst of a national story, one which had been developing for years but which most people thought was brand new. Meanwhile the beekeepers had their heads in their hives simply trying to keep themselves in business. For many, this was just another setback in a long string of troubles.

What struck us about the news, and the public anxiety that followed, is that there was a great focus on finding a single culprit. After delving into the issues it was clear that there was not an isolated solution – identifying a pest, eliminating GM crops or a specific pesticide. This was a chronic problem, intimately connected to the demands of industrial agriculture that sustain our food economy. The beekeepers, in their struggle to keep their businesses alive, are caught in a cycle of short-term fixes that is leading to the long-term collapse of the honeybee. And modern agriculture, with its emphasis on efficiency and profit, has exploited the natural interactions that sustain it to the breaking point.

We've drawn inspiration from the ancient tragedies; the archetype of the tragic Greek hero and structural elements such as the Greek chorus. The beekeepers, like Aristotle's tragic heroes, are trying to do the right thing in a situation where the right thing cannot be done. Their livelihood is linked to an agricultural system that places unsustainable demands on the creatures in their care. Our relationship with the bee – one that once was revered as sacred – has become one of dominion and exploitation.

Pollen Nation is the first film to delve into the issues behind the bee die-off that plagued beekeepers this year, but it goes way beyond the headlines (this year’s problems were simply a crisis on top of a crisis, as May Berenbaum puts it) to deliver a clear-eyed message about the fragility and hubris of this industrialized food system. The beekeepers speak for themselves, painfully aware of their reliance on an agricultural system that is faltering at its base.

We hope that after watching Pollen Nation, our audience will not only better understand the honeybee problem, but also the importance of supporting farming and land use that works with - rather than against – natural systems: it's not just the bees or the beekeepers who caught up in this flawed cycle, but all of us.