Wax, Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991)

As the first movie to be livestreamed on the internet, I'm surprised that I didn't find out about Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees any sooner, but no amount of expectations could have truly prepared me for what I was about to experience. Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees is a film that explores history, language, science, biology, and planes of existence in both its daunting, rapid-fire storytelling and David Blair's spellbinding editing, with the uses of warped and distorted digital imagery, obtuse 3D geometry, and overwhelming soundscapes making its dense, labyrinthian cyberpunk narrative feel simultaneously exhaustive, challenging, and meditative to watch. The boundary-pushing digital filmmaking was also met with the implementation of documentary techniques, with the initial uses of found footage, archival pictures, and even nature photography serving as the introduction to the world of Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees before it swiftly branches off into countless different directions.

Alongside the audiovisual interpretation of a computerized, yet deeply theological stream of consciousness, Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees tells its story through the hypnotizingly monotone narration of David Blair himself, and the combination of these elements brilliantly communicated the esoteric knowledge that our protagonist receives from his inherited Mesopotamian bees in their transcendent and otherworldly forms of communication. The film's critique of the Gulf War and how it affected the relationship between warfare and telecommunication also ended up making Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees feel incredibly prescient in its themes, with the West's heavy reliance on drones making this movie more relevant than ever. For a film that came out over 30 years ago, Wax, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees manages to feel like a true evolution of cinema as a medium, and I doubt we'll ever see anything like it ever again.