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Arielle Knight’s 19-minute documentary The Boys and the Bees has been acquired by POV Shorts following its Sundance win, with Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross and Emmy-winning producer Stacey Reiss joining the project as executive producers.
POV Shorts has acquired Arielle Knight’s documentary short The Boys and the Bees, giving the Sundance-winning film a new distribution platform as it continues its festival and awards-season run.
The acquisition was announced on 3 September 2026. Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross and Emmy-winning producer Stacey Reiss have also joined the film as executive producers.
Produced by Knight and Sean Weiner, the 19-minute U.S. documentary follows a Black family living on a small farm in rural Georgia, where parents Eliza and Nehemiah Ray are raising their sons while restoring their homestead and passing on knowledge about beekeeping, nature and the land.
The deal is particularly notable for the short-film community because POV Shorts specialises in bringing short-form documentaries to public television audiences, offering a distribution route beyond the festival circuit.
From Sundance winner to POV Shorts acquisition
The Boys and the Bees premiered as part of the Documentary Short Film Program at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
The film went on to win Sundance’s Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction.
Sundance’s official programme credits Arielle Knight as director and producer and Sean Weiner as producer. The film’s cinematography is by Fernando Rocha, with editing by Weiner and Omar Guzman and sound design by Thomas Becka.
The documentary has continued travelling internationally since Sundance.
Its festival appearances include Sheffield DocFest, where it screened as an international premiere, as well as DC/DOX, True/False Film Fest and other documentary and short-film events.
The film has also received recognition at festivals including the Atlanta Film Festival, Nevada City Film Festival, Ouray Film Festival and Salute Your Shorts.
A family story rooted in rural Georgia
At the centre of The Boys and the Bees are brothers Carver Ray and Aaro Ray, who are growing up on their parents’ farm.
Knight follows the family across the rhythms of farm life as Eliza and Nehemiah Ray teach their children about animals, beekeeping and caring for the land around them.
Rather than approaching those ideas as a conventional environmental documentary, the film uses the family’s daily experiences to explore childhood, inheritance, Black family life and relationships with the natural world.
Sundance describes the film as taking place on an idyllic rural Georgia farm where Black beekeeping parents share knowledge about life, love and nature with their young sons while rebuilding their homestead.
The film runs 19 minutes, is in English and was produced in the United States.
RaMell Ross and Stacey Reiss join as executive producers
The acquisition also brings two established documentary figures onto the project.
RaMell Ross, filmmaker behind Hale County This Morning, This Evening and Nickel Boys, has joined as an executive producer.
Ross received an Academy Award nomination for Hale County This Morning, This Evening and later directed Nickel Boys.
Producer Stacey Reiss has also joined the film as an executive producer. Her previous documentary credits include The Eagle Huntress and The Andy Warhol Diaries.
They join executive producers Opal H. Bennett, Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary/POV.
The acquisition itself was negotiated by Bennett on behalf of American Documentary/POV Shorts.
What the POV Shorts deal means
POV Shorts launched in 2018 as a public-television series dedicated specifically to short-form documentary filmmaking.
Its previous programmes have included Emmy-winning and Academy Award-recognised shorts, giving filmmakers a route to audiences outside conventional theatrical festival distribution.
For The Boys and the Bees, the acquisition extends a run that has already included Sundance and several major documentary festivals.
It also highlights something increasingly important for short filmmakers: a strong festival run can become the beginning rather than the end of a film’s life.
Distribution through broadcasters, curated streaming platforms and dedicated short-film programmes can give successful shorts substantially longer audience exposure after their primary festival circuit.
For filmmakers developing their own nonfiction projects, Indie Shorts Mag recently covered the Guardian–ARTE Short Documentary Fund, another opportunity supporting short-form documentary storytelling.
The Boys and the Bees key details
- Title: The Boys and the Bees
- Director: Arielle Knight
- Producers: Arielle Knight and Sean Weiner
- Country: United States
- Runtime: 19 minutes
- Language: English
- Director of Photography: Fernando Rocha
- Editors: Sean Weiner and Omar Guzman
- Sound Design: Thomas Becka
- Featured family: Eliza Ray, Nehemiah Ray, Carver Ray and Aaro Ray
- Sundance award: Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction
- Distributor/platform: POV Shorts / American Documentary
- New executive producers: RaMell Ross and Stacey Reiss
The acquisition adds another significant step to The Boys and the Bees after its Sundance win and international festival run.
The next development to watch will be POV Shorts’ release and broadcast plans for the film as it moves from the festival circuit towards a broader public audience.
Watch The Boys and the Bees Trailer
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