Funding for Documentary Film 'Amrita'

Update as of June 16th 2023

VIEW OUR CURRENT TRAILER BELOW



AMRITA ‘WHEN THE BEEKEEPERS WERE WOMEN’

A documentary film by Onyx Baird and Peter Orsini

My name is Onyx Baird and I am a scientist (with a M.S. in Wildlife Disease), a honeybee conservationist, and a filmmaker. Together with my partner Peter Orsini, we have been working on a documentary film about women shamanic beekeepers and the role they are currently playing in honeybee conservation.

7 years ago I was curious to learn more about the honeybee crisis and through my research came across an intriguing story. I discovered that in the ancient world, honeybees were worshipped and cared for by women shamans, and that virtually every culture on earth held the bees as sacred. I wondered if there were women still practicing this level of bee worship today, and began my journey to search for them.

What I found was extraordinary. Women all over the world from many different cultures are feeling a re-awakening of this reciprocal way of relating to nature and the honeybee. While the lineage of bee shamanism remains intact, women make up only 32% of beekeepers today. While other documentaries about bees have featured women, none are focused on their stories.

As I began to have conversations with all of these women, something became very apparent to me - what I originally viewed as the honeybee crisis is actually a human crisis. We have lost our relationship to the bees, to each other, and to nature. We have forgotten what indigenous wisdom has always known; that we can have communication with the non-human world.

Wild bees live in complex forest ecosystems, yet most of our scientific studies on bees have been performed in the context of industrial agriculture. Recent studies on feral/wild bees are now supporting what these women beekeepers have already learned through intuition. This film is about that confluence of spirit + science.

The bees are like a window into the hidden inner workings of nature. They are teachers of unconditional love, and through observing them we can learn how to heal ourselves and our relationship to nature. In the words of Alison Yahna, “they can lead us back to the garden.”

So far we have raised $28,000 through a combination of private investors, grants, and individual donations. Thank you! These funds have been so supportive allowing us to purchase professional film equipment, as well as covering our travel and crew expenses to film in both Hawaii and Portugal. This means that ⅔ of the movie has already been filmed; a huge feat! The $15,000 that we are requesting now will give us the ability to film the last third of the movie in Mexico. The money raised will be used to cover crew travel expenses and salaries, purchase additional needed equipment (higher quality sound recorder and tripod), cover translator fees, as well as contribute to the Mayan community we will be filming (we hope to pay for the construction of a hurricane-proof pollinator garden). If there are any leftover funds, they will be utilized to give us a head start on the editing process while we wait for anticipated grant funding. We predict editing the film will take approximately one year.

We are pursuing crowdfunding to cover our Mexico expenses because grant funding generally takes many months to secure. Due to the seasonal nature of beekeeping, our timeline puts us in Mexico during January 2024. If we are unable to secure the funds in time, our production schedule will be pushed back an entire year (to January 2025). The themes presented in this film are very relevant for this time, and for this reason, feels imperative to finish and release this project as soon as possible.

Please assist us in delivering the message of the bees and of these women to the world! It is truly a much needed balm for our times.

With deepest thanks and endless gratitude,

Onyx Baird

To learn more about the film visit www.amritadocumentary.com or follow on IG @amritadocumentary

LOGLINE

Three groups of women continue an ancient legacy of woman-led honeybee shamanism. This film follows their unique journeys through the modern industrial landscape as they work towards providing habitats to conserve the species.

MEET THE WOMEN

This film will document the stories of three groups of women shamans as they work to conserve honeybees through the form of sanctuaries, as well as the spiritual connection they share with the bees across cultures.

Our first collaborator is Alison Yahna who is located on the Big Island, Hawaii. While studying shamanism in the late 90’s, the bees guided her to create the Artemis Smiles Honeybee Sanctuary with the goal of restoring their status as a sacred creature. Here she began rescuing feral/wild colonies and pioneering regenerative beekeeping practices. In 2010 the small hive beetle was introduced to the island and decimated both the wild and commercial bee populations. Through listening to the bees, Alison chose to forgo the poisons and treatments that other beekeepers were using. Instead she adopted a darwinian approach and by 2013 had lost most of her colonies to disease. However, over time the survivors repopulated and she now has a thriving apiary of resilient bees that have no need for chemical treatments. While she came to these methods through intuition, they are now being fully supported by the most recent science in honeybee health. Alison is currently teaching and sharing these treatment free bees with her local community of regenerative beekeepers. (learn more about Alison’s work here http://www.artemissmiles.com/).

In the Alentejo region of Portugal, we will be documenting Annelieke van der Sluijs and Sandira Belia, co-founders of the BeeWisdom Network. While the collaboration between these two women began locally in Alentejo, their network has expanded to become international and serves to connect people and their local initiatives exploring the wonders of bees. They are pioneering ways to be in intimate reciprocal relationships with the bees through rewilding, nature wisdom, healing (of humans, bees, and the planet), and education. Sandira is also the author of the recently published book “Bee Wisdom: Teachings from the Hive.” (learn more about the BeeWisdom Network here https://beewisdom.earth/).

The last women we will be focusing on are Doña Anselma and her daughter, Lía. These indigenous Mayan women are running a sanctuary in the Yucatan protecting our only native bee to North America, the Melipona. The Melipona is a stingless bee, and as such is completely reliant on human protection from predators. Because these bees produce much less honey than their European sisters, they have fallen out of favor and are now endangered. The Melipona has always been of deep spiritual significance to the Mayan people, as can be seen through their worship of the bee god Ah Muzen Cab. Historically Melipona keepers were actually male shamans, but interestingly it is groups of women that have stepped forward now to work towards their conservation. Initially when the European Honeybee was introduced to Mexico, their high-level productivity caused the plants to thrive and both bee species coexisted successfully. However, due to increased deforestation creating lack of habitat, the Melipona are now struggling to compete and survive. Our connection to these women is Valerie Solheim, a jungian psychologist living in Colorado who has made previous journeys to the Yucatan and forged connections with them. Valerie has agreed to be our translator as she is fluent in Spanish and has a thorough understanding of these women and their work with the Melipona.

In addition to filming these three groups separately, we hope to film a meeting between all of our collaborators in Mexico. We are excited for the potential to document this cross-pollination between the Mayan and European bee honoring traditions.

DONATION BENEFITS ARE SEEN BELOW

A DONATION OF $50 WILL FEATURE YOUR NAME IN THE SPECIAL THANKS SECTION OF THE CREDITS

A DONATION OF $100 WILL FEATURE YOUR NAME IN THE SPECIAL THANKS SECTION OF THE CREDITS, AND ACCESS TO A 3 HR ONLINE INTRO TO CONSERVATION BEEKEEPING COURSE

A DONATION OF $1000 WILL FEATURE YOUR NAME IN THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SECTION OF THE CREDITS, ACCESS TO A 3 HR ONLINE INTRO TO CONSERVATION BEEKEEPING COURSE, A BOTTLE OF PROPOLIS INFUSED OIL, AND PRIORITY SEATING AT THE PREMIER