Honey Hunters

Oscar nominated documentary short from 1991

As the denizens of a Tibetan village prepare for their arduous annual trek to exchange salt for grain, the community's allegiances are split between aging chieftain Tinle and rebellious young Karma. Tinle tries to maintain his clout and preserve obedience to ancient customs when Karma challenges the old man's power.

After her mothers death, Grace, 14, decides to go back to Africa to find her father whom she hasn't seen since her parents divorced. After his plane crashes in the desert, her father gets caught by diamond hunters. Grace follows her fathers route along with family friend Kadjiro...

Every spring, tens of thousands of men, women and children leave their villages for a dangerous trek to the high Himalaya to collect Yarsagumbu, a mysterious transmutation between plant and insect. Used in Chinese medicine, it is worth up to 60 000 USD a kilo, more than gold.

At the foothills of the Himalaya, along the border separating India and Nepal, Raji nomads still hunt for wild honey. They scale the trees of the great Terai forest, risking their lives to harvest the honey of the apis laboriosa - the largest migratory bee in the world. Both slave and master of the bees, Bahadur defies the towering trees and braves death for the survival of his people. After discovering written accounts of the Raji's way of life, photographer and filmmaker Eric Valli set out to discover what had become of these nomadic people.