What sparked our interest was reading the stories about the bees that were housed on the rooftops of Notre Dame. That story led us to want to learn more about honey bees, bumblebees, and the significant role they play in our ecosystem. More importantly what effects our society is having on them.
Now, we are headed all over the East Coast states to talk to our local beekeepers about their experiences raising beehives. We are seeking out all levels of beekeeper, from professional to small business owner, in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and and Connecticut.
The Pacedocs 2020 Spring Documentary:
Bee Aware
THE BUZZ
Weekly Beesearch: Honey Harvest
Last night we received word about the status of our trip to France. Governor Cuomo ordered that all NY state schools cancel their spring break trips, and ordered all study-abroad students to come home. We fall under this category, and our flight was canceled. However,...
Production Week 6: Coronavirus & A Beekeeper Speaks
We have all been closely monitoring the coronavirus at home, but for us, more importantly, the effects of global travel to France. What affects the world around us also affects our classroom. As of today, March the 3rd, we are clear to go to France, based on the CDC...
Weekly Beesearch: Almonds are Killing the Bees
A note about almonds: 80%+ of all almonds consumed worldwide are produced in the state of California. Almonds are also becoming an increasingly large staple of the world wide diet, and production is going through the roof. As a result, California is going through an...
Production Week 5: Locations, Equipment, and Media Management
Another week down in pre-production and we still have so many things to do before our trip. We are still reaching out to contacts and finalizing our film schedule. We are still doing research on people and locations that we are going to visit. First, we discussed Laon...
Weekly Beesearch: Food Fight! Bees and Farmers Unite
Honey bees are the only domesticated pollinator species in the world and are very important to our diet. They are responsible for approximately 1/3 of all food production while also being the primary pollinator for 80% of flowering crops. Also, fields pollinated by...
Learning the Equipment
Yesterday marks the first full month of documentary work, excluding individual research done over winter break, and it has been a wild ride, jam-packed with learning! This week we focused on going over the equipment we would be taking to Paris and Laon, how to film...
Weekly Beesearch: France’s Neonicotinoid Ban
In the summer of 2018, France made the revolutionary step to ban all Neonicotinoids. This coming on the heels of a recent EU decision to ban 3 neonicotinoids, clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam, for outdoor use. France takes this a step further by also...
Week 3: Structure and Interviews
Structure is everything in a documentary. In this week’s meeting, the production team learned the importance of documentary structure and how to conduct an interview. Like with any story, documentaries have a simple structure. There is a beginning, a middle, and an...
Weekly Beesearch: What is Colony Collapse Disorder?
Every once in a while, stories pop up in the news cycle about honey bees dying or disappearing mysteriously. Often, this is attributed to something called Colony Collapse Disorder. We have no idea what causes it yet, or how to prevent it, but here’s what we do know. ...
Week 2: Research and Contacts
The backbone of every documentary is the quality of its research, as every aspect of the subject must be professionals without prior research into their fields. This also means that we can hold high-level conversations and understand what is being said to us, leading...
Hawaii: living on the edge in paradise
During the summer of 2018, hundreds of earthquakes shook the summit of Kīlauea, leading to the active volcano’s largest eruption in 200 years.
Surviving Maria
In 2018 Pace University’s groundbreaking documentary series focused on the island of Puerto Rico.
Our Team
As soon as the team met, we began delegating jobs and getting to know each other’s roles. We will all be wearing many hats throughout the semester, not limited to filming, interviewing, and researching.
