The Beehive's Indigenous sci-fi-meets-coming-of-age story debuts at The Rio, November 17

Vancouver filmmaker Alexander Lasheras and his team will attend the B.C. premiere

The Beehive screens at the Rio Theatre on November 17, doors at 8:15 pm and movie at 8:45, with the filmmaker, cast, and crew in attendance

PANDEMIC METAPHORS loom large in Vancouver filmmaker Alexander Lasheras’s new The Beehive, a survival story that follows an Indigenous family facing a possible alien invasion on their farm.

The film begins when young Rosemary discovers a strange “beehive” growing on a farm tree, visiting it each day to video-document its fast growth. Interwoven are the dynamics of a family getting through the grief of losing a parent, with strong acting from newcomers Meadow Kingfisher, Kaydin Gibson, Stephen JF Walker, and Aleen Sparrow.

Métis director Lasheras boldly intermixes genres, coining a new kind of Indigenous sci-fi that also revels in the natural setting of the Langley shoot. At the same time, the film works as a family and coming-of-age drama, with themes of identity, loss, and survival in a world altered by a pandemic from outerspace. There are also some pretty nifty monster-alien-movie effects, with a tip of a slimy claw to classics like Alien, The Thing, and The Body Snatchers. Check out the trailer below.

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