WHEN THEY’RE GONE is a documentary short, examining humanity’s fragile dependence on nature. Despite our best efforts to control and shape our surroundings, we learn through the film's characters that disrupting nature's carefully designed ecosystems carries weighty consequences. In doing so, it casts a spotlight on industrial agriculture’s reliance on honey bees for hire in order to produce crops. The film’s four characters struggle to transport enough healthy bees to California’s Central Valley to pollinate the almond orchards--the mecca of migratory pollinators. Each character represents a small piece of an industry that brings nearly every bee and beekeeper in the country together to feed the world, their bees equal parts necessary and disposable.