A BEEKEEPING family based on the Beara peninsula are the subject of a fascinating documentary being showcased as part of the Cork International Film Festival.
Called The Keepers, it’s a debut documentary by Dubliner Eoin McGowan, who has strong ties to West Cork.
His mother Noirin O’Sullivan’s father was from Glengarriff and his maternal grandparents moved back there when he was young and many summers were spent in the area.
The Keepers is essentially a portrait of bees, beekeeping, and beekeepers, told largely from the perspective of the De Ruiter family, who left the Netherlands for West Cork 25 years ago, making their home on the Beara peninsula where they practise the art and science of apiary.
They moved here they said because ‘people still have time to be human’ on the Beara peninsula.
Among the many facts they disclose is that it takes nine bees to fill one small spoon of honey.
Eoin shot the documentary over six months of the honey bee season in 2022 when he was living in West Cork.
‘The fact that I didn’t know a lot about bees drew me in, I had a curiosity about them, along with the visual element and the folklore associated with bees,’ he said.
‘I’m also drawn to the chaos and calm that they represent, which I feel is a metaphor of the dance of life.’
Eoin works as a documentary and film editor and The Keepers was entirely self-funded.
‘I’m really delighted with the outcome,’ he said.
His next project is also based in West Cork where he’s working on a documentary with the West Cork Traveller Agency in Clonakilty on Traveller heritage. Eoin’s mother Noirín is the well-known former Garda Commissioner.
