About the film
(30 mins | 2019 | Language: Tetun Terik)
For more than a century, the island of Timor has been divided by a colonial border. This border has displaced and separated the people of Lookeu, dividing their land, water and history. Timor’s migratory wild honey bees challenge this division. Their migrations are essential to the agricultural and spiritual wellbeing of the people and places who depend upon them.In community honey harvest rituals, queen bees are courted in ceremony by men who climb high into the canopy to sing nocturnal forest love songs. These songs express gratitude to the bees, enticing and imploring them to give up their sweetness and maintain their seasonal visits.
This film is the outcome of a long-term collaboration between researchers Balthasar Kehi and Lisa Palmer and the people of Balthasar’s homeland of Lookeu. It portrays a border community who, despite changing farming practices and increasing commodification, are determined to maintain the bees’ movement across the region and preserve their shared identity.
Konaba Wild Honey
(30 mins | 2019 | Dalen: Tetun Terik)
Liu tiha tinan atus ida ona, fronteira ka baliza kolonial ida hafahe (ilha) Timor ba rua. Fronteira ne’e hadukan no hafahe povo Lookeu, haketak sira nia rai, sira nia bee no sira nia ai-knanoik. Timor nia bani (wani) ba bani-been fuik dezafia divisaun ne’e. Sira nia dalan ba mai (migrasaun) mak esensial ba agrikultura no moris diak espiritual ema no fatin ne’be hakno’an (depende) ba sira. Iha ritual kolheta bani been nian, mane sira ne’be sai ba ai-leten hananu ho lian domin ba bani liurai-feto sira. Hananu sira husu ba bani sira atu fo sira nia been midar no fila fali mai dala rua, tinan ba tinan.
Filme ida ne’e mak rezultadu husi kolaborasaun ba tempu naruk entre peskizador Balthazar Kehi, Lisa Palmer no povo husi Balthazar nia rai Lookeu. Nia hato’o oinsa komuniade ida ne’be enfrenta situasaun ne’be nia agrodiversidade (ai-han oin oin ba bani) tun, no integrasaun ba ekonomia merkadu nian sae, hakarak hamahan bani sira nia dalan ba mai hodi mantein sira nia identidade.
About the makers
Director and photographer - Lisa Palmer
With thanks and respect to the community of Lookeu
Produced with support from the Australian Research Council, the University of Melbourne and RMIT.
Distributed by Ronin Films:
https://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/16418/wild-honey-caring-for-bees-in.html
Click here to download the full text of the Filmmaker's Statement
Click here to download a PDF of the Study Guide for WILD HONEY
International Screenings
Dili International Film Festival, Official Selection, 2019
Timor Leste Studies Conference in Dili, July 2019
Human Rights Film Festival Timor-Leste Special Screening in association with Movies That Matter, Dili, Timor-Leste, December 8, 2019
Asian Studies Association Annual Conference, Official Selection, Boston, United States, March 20, 2020,
First Hermetic Film Festival, Venice, Italy, 3-9 Sept 2020, Official Selection
Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, United States, Official Selection, 1-11 Nov 2020
Bali International Film Festival, Indonesia, Official Selection, 2021
GMN TV, Timor-Leste, August 21, 2020
Macquarie University Ethnographic Film Festival (MUIFF), Sydney, Australia, October 8, 2020, Official Selection
IUAES Congress 2020, 9-14 March 2021
RAI Film Festival 2021, 19-28 March 2021
