It is Monday, May 11th. There is a crowd gathering outside of Jacob Burns theater in Pleasantville, NY. A poster in the window lets everyone know tonight is the premiere of Bee Aware. The house opens about 6PM, the crowd filters into the lobby. As the audience makes their way past the lobby, the doc team welcomes them into the theater. As soon as the audience settles in, and few are waiting for their friends to come, the host of the night, Dr. Luskay, introduces the film to the audience with warm welcome. Expectations are high. The house light dims out, and the movie starts—we hear a few laughs and chuckles along the way. The curtain closes, the lights flicker on, and there is applause across the theater. This small but close team of student filmmakers couldn’t be happier as they make their way to the front of the theater. The Q&A session begins as the team finally stands in front of the audience for the first time. It is the moment the team has been waiting for since the start of the project. Unfortunately, the world has turned upside down and rather than premiering at Jacob Burns Theater tonight, we are publishing this blog post.
As everyone knows, the coronavirus has shut down the world for the foreseeable future. This includes our two premieres for Bee Aware in Pleasantville and New York City. But even though the world came to a screeching halt, our team remained busy as bees putting together what they were able to collect before the shut down. As we gear up for more filming in the summer, we are all still dedicated and determined to see our finished documentary premiere in front of our loved ones.
This is not the end of the road for the Pace Docs team and Bee Aware. There is still a bright future ahead of us as we continue to plan for a possible (fingers crossed) premier this fall. Friends, family, and fans will be excitedly invited back into the open contagious-free foyer to see the documentary our team has made. The months of non-stop work—in and out of quarantine—to create something we are all immensely proud of will be finally screened for the public. With the premiere moved to the Fall, the Pace Docs team is going to continue to work into the summer. We are planning to interview more beekeepers and get more footage in June and July. Our work has never stopped, even in the face of uncertain times. We all know that one day we will get our premiere and we will all ‘‘bee” excited to finally show you the final product.
Do you or someone you know keep bees? We want to hear your story! Pace University’s Pace Docs crew is in the process of producing a documentary about Urban Beekeeping, the latest in a series of award-winning environmentally and culturally relevant documentaries from our department. Contact us at paceudocs@gmail.com. And follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok for more content!