AEFF films currently in production & other AEFF projects
BEE TRILOGY (working title)
This is a series of three half hour films, currently in production, focusing on the African Honey Bee (apis mellifera scutellata) and the part it plays in Africa’s plant life, including its vital role as a food crop pollinator. This series of films has kindly been made possible thanks to a grant from The Ohrstrom Foundation.
Film One: The Traditional Bee Man
This film has been assembled almost entirely from existing footage in AEFF’s extensive film library. It shows how a traditional African Bee Man relies on an age-old skill to scale huge baobab trees and by using materials found in the bushland, he is able to reach wild bee nests, situated either in holes or in the open under overhanging branches. This method of honey harvesting would have begun many years ago, when early man first had the idea of reaping the benefits of wild bees.
In time, humans developed the idea of creating beehives so that they could obtain honey in greater quantities and more easily, and honey became a regular source of food.
Unfortunately, with the knowledge we now have today, we now know that the traditional actions of smoking out bees to stop them from stinging the person taking the honey and removing all the honey comb without leaving any for the bees (bees rely on the honey comb for food during the dry season) is in fact destructive to the bee population. As a result, bee populations decline, along with the benefits that bees bring to the natural environment and to mankind.
>>> See more photos of the Bee Man at work in AEFF's Facebook album
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Film Two: Apis mellifera scutellata – the African Honey Bee
This film is a combination of library material and new footage. It shows the astonishing and complex behaviour of the different castes within the framework of the swarm as a whole. Many of the actions of the queen bee and the worker bees during swarming, building the comb, rearing the young, and collecting nectar and pollen are shown in intimate detail, accompanied by a riveting narrative.
>>> See more photos of bees at work in AEFF's Facebook album
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Film Three: Benefits to Mankind of the Bee
This film begins back with early footage from AEFF’s library, and moves on to new footage showing the modern, more efficient way to keep bees and harvest honey without damaging the swarm. In addition to showing people a more lucrative and beneficial way to obtain honey, the film will educate people on the benefits of pollination, how pollination works and how vital this relationship between insects and plants is to people in Africa. By showing examples at a local level, the film will show how the same benefits apply across the world, for nearly all the major plant species of the world, including mankind’s own food crops, rely on bees to pollinate them.
>>> See more bee photos in AEFF's Facebook album
Major LOGGING AND ARCHIVING Project
Thanks to a grant from the Ohrstrom Foundation, AEFF has been able to purchase a new digital editing suite, including specialized logging software, and to hire an editor to carry out the logging and archiving of all the 600+ hours of footage in the AEFF library. While all AEFF footage is roughly logged as soon as it has been shot, this is a much more detailed process, involving cross-referencing and extreme levels of detail, which will make AEFF's library (probably one of the most comprehensive environmental/wildlife film libraries on the continent) more accessible to all future generations of AEFF editors, who will be able to draw on this extensive resource when assembling new educational films in future. For example, the Bee Trilogy films (above) will draw heavily on existing footage in the AEFF library, supplemented by new footage.
INSPIRATION SERIES - ongoing
Meanwhile, AEFF continues work on its “Inspiration” series of films. Each film focuses on a particular individual (or small organization) who is doing something positive for conservation and the environment, with a view to improving their community’s quality of life, and preserving biodiversity. These people/organizations are presented as role models, and illustrate that even a single person or a small local project can have an impact and make a difference.
As a whole, the series covers a broad range of environmental issues, and show ways of dealing with them, from the rural village level to government level.
Read about AEFF films planned for the future...
