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Angelina Jolie and singer Ellie Golding want the audience to “Bee: Wild.” The new environmental doc series, currently in post-production, will world premiere at SXSW London. It’s directed by Rebecca and Josh Tickell.
“Ellie Goulding is an amazing humanitarian. She has done so much to further important causes, as has Angelina Jolie. Ms. Jolie has a particular interest in bees due to her nonprofit work in Cambodia, where native bees are important to the indigenous community there. We are so honored to have them both involved in this project,” Josh Tickell shared with Variety.
Goulding, who narrates, also has the original music credit with Jim Fairfield. Jolie is set to feature as an interviewee and contributor.
Rebecca and Josh Tickell produce alongside Eva Kruse. The filmmaking duo, also behind “Common Ground” and “Good Fortune,” has already built a “robust” school and educational program around the series.
“Just as we have done with our other films, bees resonate on a deep level with young people, who also seem to know intrinsically there are issues with the way our society has managed the ecosystems of planet earth and there are inherently better ways to do most things.”
Pollinators, including bees, are critical for maintaining biodiversity and maintaining our food supply, underlined Tickell.
“These small creatures have such a pivotal role in our lives, and they are also ‘the canary in the coal mine,’ in a way. They are an indicator of the health of our planet. They are really sending us a warning message, luckily, one that we still have time to interpret and if we listen in time, we can avert larger problems.”
They first pitched a project around bees almost 10 years ago.
“[That was] when some of the first news of colony collapse started to unfold, but we couldn’t seem to galvanize the interest needed. We were disappointed, as it really seemed like an important issue. When the opportunity came to partner with our friends at Bee Wild and Re:Wild to make this film, we jumped on it.”
While “anything in the environmental genre can be scary or sad,” he observed, “science is evolving our understanding of the natural world so quickly there’s constantly more focus and information on what can be done.”
“We like to cover the crisis, but we also feel the most important thing is to end with actionable solutions that the viewer can take into their own hands. We want hope to happen, of course, but we want it to come from a place of people knowing they can be part of the solution by taking concrete steps,” added Tickell.
And by taking part in a movement much bigger than one film.
“People might think we want them to go into beekeeping, but that’s not the idea at all. In fact, in some urban and rural areas, that might actually be the wrong approach,” he stated.
“The focus of this project is to regenerate and bolster natural biodiversity in our local ecosystems, so the film puts a big emphasis on planting pollinator gardens and choosing pollinator-friendly food. There are lots of things people can do – and we’d love folks to watch the film to find out more!”
English (US) ·