Colony

Taking a look at the mysterious apian malady known as colony collapse disorder, which has ravaged the commercial honeybee industry in the last decade, Colony avoids an accusatory eco-exposé tone, offering several theories for the causes of CCD, including insecticides, while also suggesting the possibility that human activity may be largely guiltless after all. But more important, the vibe delivered by directors Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell is a more general, cockeyed, Errol Morris–type character portrait of beekeepers and apiary culture at this critical moment, especially in the focus on a close-knit Christian family in California. The metaphorical angle becomes clear (even slightly labored) over the long run: just as the insect colonies have their hive-minded social structures, behaviors, and stresses, so do the human collectives who tend to them. Against a backdrop of long-term economic malaise, the pernicious colony collapse disorder has its mirror in beekeeper collapse disorder. When it's not elbowing the viewer in the side with cleverness (one strong-willed human matriarch in the business acts like a “queen bee”), Colony is quite transfixing, especially in its delineation of the crucial roles that bees serve both biologically and economically, above and beyond the honey industry. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)