Rajani Mani’s docu-film Colonies in Conflict pans in on the impact of the changing environmental and man-made factors on honey bees

Rajani Mani's documentary ‘Colonies in Conflict’ follows the journey of rock bees in Bengaluru, India, from urban landscapes to forests and farms. After witnessing the traumatic sight of tens of thousands of bees dying due to pesticide spraying, she began researching the subject and speaking to scientists, ecologists, taxonomists, and biologists. The film conveys the need to take notice of vanishing biodiversity in the global south and highlights the potential of conservation efforts to revive insect populations. It premiered in 2022, winning the Best Independent Production Award at the Wildlife Film Festival, Rotterdam.

Documentary filmmaker/editor Rajani Mani recollects seeing the ‘phenomenon’ sometime in 2015 when she moved into her apartment in a high-rise in Bengaluru. Bee hives dangling from the ledges onto balconies, often on the higher floors of apartment buildings. Since she was an active member of the community, she was among those requested or called upon ‘to find a solution’. That was the beginning of her engagement with the rock bee or giant honey bee (apis dorsata) which eventually led to her make the feature-length documentary Colonies in Conflict. 

Bengaluru-based Rajani, who was in Kochi for the screening of the documentary at Studio Mirabilis, says,  “I didn’t know enough about bees to provide a solution,” she says.  

The common ‘solution’ usually is spraying pesticide and lopping off the hive which resulted in the bees dying and “the traumatic sight of tens of thousands of bees literally dropping dead!” It led her to search for information, of which she found nothing. “I thought there would be enough information to share. But there was nothing. There is only a limited understanding of bees. They are tolerated more, as pollinators.”  

Curious, over time, she began her own research into the subject which included, besides reading, speaking to scientists, ecologists, taxonomists, and biologists. This was in late 2018. The making of the documentary got underway in the latter part of 2019. Rajani who stays in Whitefield, not only shot Colonies there, but also captured the lives of bees in JP Nagar, Yelahanka, Kanakpura and Hebbal, in the city.

The pandemic slowed down work, but gave Rajani the time to be contemplative. She got to meet the characters pivotal to taking the narrative forward including Venkat, who cuts down beehives built on highrises and one of her neighbours, Pranitha, through whom we see the ‘story’ develop. The effect of the pandemic reflected in the behaviour of the bees. The camera follows the journey of these migratory bees, found in south and south east Asia, from the urban landscape to the forests and the farms where they are perceived differently. It opens our eyes to the fact that bees also bear the consequences of pollution, pesticides and intensive agriculture.

The narrative moves through other geographical spaces, aspects of and attitudes towards rock bees: as pests and as crucial to the ecology and agriculture. The film, ready in 2022, was screened in May that year. She refers to the film as a ‘local story with global consequences’ due to the depleting bee population across the world. “In the end, the film conveys that the world needs to sit up and take notice of the vanishing biodiversity of the global south — forest fires, melting icebergs, rising temperatures are the result of insatiable human greed.” The film concludes on a note of optimism, stressing that conservation efforts could revive insect populations and thereby preserve biodiversity.   

The film premiered in 2022 at the Wildlife Film Festival, Rotterdam, winning the Best Independent Production Award. It received recognition at the Jackson Wild Media Awards, Silbersalz Science & Media Awards, and Nature in Focus Festival among a slew of others.