INNOVATORS, CREATORS & FREE BEES AT WORK
NOT YOUR BEE is an internationally co-produced documentary that portrays beekeepers, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs who work with honey bees in an innovative, artistic and experimental way. A matter of life and death for many species, since bees ensure the continued reproduction and survival not only of plants but other organisms as well that depend on those plants for survival.
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE I WILL PORTRAY?
- Louis de Cordier/COSCO, artist, environmentalist and inovator (ES-BE)
- André Wermelinger, tree beekeeper & FreeTheBees-activist (CH)
- Patrick Kohl, etomologist, bee researcher, Würzburg University (DE)
- Benjamin Rutschmann, colleague of Patrick, Würzburg University (DE)
- Tim Joye, art curator REAKTOR21 (BE)
- Anne-Marie Maes, contemporary artist ELBBIENEN (BE)
- Toon Angeli & Hendrik Haers, beekeepers (BE)
The beepod in Ghent, where art and ecology meet. 
Elbbienen by Anne-Marie Maes, bees in a work of art on the Elbe in Hamburg. 
The beepod, with curator Tim Joye waving at us. 
These bees in Belgium have been living for years inside an electricity pole. 
Bees living in an electricity pole. 
The day when the first bees arrived in the Beepod . 
Bees in a hollow beech tree in Schwäben. 
Tim Joye, Louis ’Cosco’ De Cordier and the rest of the Beepod crew. 
Bee researchers Patrick and Benjamin are searching for bees in tree cavities. 
Hendrik and Toon are assembling a Weissenseifener Hängekorbe. 
Elbbienen by Anne-Marie Maes, transferring the bees to their new home. 
Manfred, teaching how to make a Weissenseifener Hängekorbe. 
André Wermelinger inspecting one of his many tree trunk hives. 
A Belgian beekeeper holding what's left of one of his bee colonies.
COME ABOARD THIS BEE ADVENTURE !
In 2017 I made the documentary THE WILD BEES THAT KEEP US in cooperation with the Swiss development organisation Fastenopfer. While filming local beekeepers in Oudomxay province in Laos, I discovered that the locals didn’t talk about ’their’ bees, but about ’the’ bees, bees whom they regard as supporters of their communal life in a fundamental sense. This experience got me curious and raised the question whether there are people in Europe as well who look at beekeeping in a way that focuses on bees themselves and not only on honey exploitation.
I started researching people who investigate new forms of cooperation between humans and bees, and who see the crisis in traditional beekeeping through colony collapse disorder (CCD) as a starting point for something new and inspiring. The ideas, stories and dynamics of these passionate beekeepers, scientists, artists and (wild) bees form the core of this feature documentary, called NOT YOUR BEE. For bees belong to nobody and -given the fact that they accompany and serve a vital part of the evolution since millions of years- we may well talk about these prehistoric ancestors as «man keepers» (as Louis de Cordier put it) rather than perceive humans as bee keepers….
During the next two years, I and my team shall follow at least seven bee innovators across Belgium, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
The ambition of this film is to show to a wide audience that there are many new ways of cooperation between humans and bees. My hope is to thereby promote new and positive perspectives for a survival of the bees and to create a platform of support for those who have dedicated themselves to the cause.
Here’s the trailer of my previous film, which will give you an idea of my approach as a film maker.
SUPPORT US NOW!
As a bee lover and DIY director, I invested the benefit of my previous documentary THE WILD BEES THAT KEEP US into the research and preparations for this new film.
A two years film project requires substsantial means. To actually start filming we need €35.000 to cover basic production costs. If we collect more than this amount all extra funding will serve the film making and its protagonists as well.
We need your support and give you a heartfelt Thank You!! in advance for coming on board!
I’M NOT ALONE! THIS IS MY CREW…
- Dimi Dumortier (director)
- Dimi Dumortier & Toon Angeli (producers)
- Thomas Pilscheur & Angela Feng (co-producers)
- Dimi Dumortier & Vida Dena (script)
- Dimi Dumortier, Wouter Elsen & Vida Dena (camera & sound)
- Tom De Jaeger (drone camera)
You can receive a TAX RECEIPT for your contribution see below link
