The Boys and the Bees
About this campaign
About the Project
The Boys and the Bees follows a year in the life of a Black family on a small farm in rural Georgia. Through a patient, verité lens, the film moves at the pace of two young boys, alive with curiosity, as they wander fields, tend hives, and grow in their relationship with the land around them. Their parents, Eliza and Nehemiah Ray—partners in life, parenthood, and beekeeping—set out to reimagine Black family life, rooting it in the wisdom of the natural world. As they work toward restoring their homestead, the film traces their quiet efforts to raise their sons, Carver (6) and Aaro (4), close to the land, transforming the rhythms of daily life into a tender meditation on childhood, inheritance, and legacy.
From small, luminous moments—a frightened boy finding the courage to tend a beehive—a larger story unfolds: one of reparative healing and the deliberate work of building a family bound to the land. The Boys and the Bees is a tender yet radical portrait of self-determination, kinship, and love.
The film will be released on November 17, 2026 through PBS national broadcast and streaming debut via POV Shorts Season 9 in partnership with TIME Studios, Higher Ground, and Switchboard Magazine.
Meet the Team
Director | Arielle Knight
Producer and Editor | Sean Weiner
Cinematography | Fernando Rocha
Associate Producer | Alessandra Puig-Santana
Consulting Producers | Arno Mokros, Martha Gregory
Executive Producers | RaMell Ross, Stacey Reiss, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Ethan Lewis, Opal H. Bennett, Chris White, Erika Dilday, Celia Aniskovich, Stephanie Sharis
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Project website: https://www.raysdwild.com/