A look at the world of Burt Shavitz, the face and co-founder of Burt's Bees.A look at the world of Burt Shavitz, the face and co-founder of Burt's Bees.A look at the world of Burt Shavitz, the face and co-founder of Burt's Bees.
- Director
- Star
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsReferenced in Film Junk Podcast: Episode 433: TIFF 2013 (2013)
Featured review
Jody Shapiro's documentary Burt's Buzz opens on an explosive note; we see Burt Shavitz, the creator of the natural, personal care product company Burt's Bees, walk through a Taiwan airport and be created with overwhelming love by the community. Burt, dressed like a hippie beekeeper (mainly because he is), boasting long gray hair and a long gray beard, a sunhat, and glasses, humbly waltzes through the crowd, taking pictures and occasionally seeming uncomfortable around the noise. As someone who had little knowledge on Burt's Bees as a company (and, even after watching this video, still admittedly does), I was stunned to see such overwhelming love and recognition for a man who founded a personal beauty company that has presumably found most of its success in America.
We cut to Burt back in his small Maine home, living off the desolate land with his friend Trevor Folson, in what Trevor refers to as "Burt's horde of peculiarity." We learn that excessive publicity, social media, and adoration from fans leaves him sickened and wanting to reach for his trusty shotgun. He states that a good day is when "no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere," as he sits outside in a lawn-chair in a plaid flannel, jeans, and his trademark, unkempt beard, looking like a cross between Matthew McConaughey and Gandolf. He is anti-war and embraces being a free-spirit; someone who humbly sits back and watches the world naturally behave without tampering with nature's ways. To call him eclectic is entirely shortchanging; he's other-worldly unique and original.
After a good forty-five minutes of Burt aimlessly reciting his own personal ideology of the world and nature, we finally get into talking about Burt's Bees as a company. At first, Burt doesn't seem the least bit interested in talking about what made him so successful or what his company means to him, almost as if he didn't want a company in the first place or forgot he ever owned one. Burt tells us how the love of his life, Roxanne Quimby, essentially helped build Burt's Bees into what it currently is, and then, when Burt decided the company was growing too and retracted in his involvement in hopes to stay true to his authentic roots, Roxanne took the company as her's and more-or-less swindled him out of a great deal of money. She took Burt's Cottage Industry creation, oversaw its maximum profit potential, and took a whole of the company, seeing Burt's life as nothing more than a cute story; not a real meaningful lifestyle that he held near and dear to his heart. "She used me as a pillar to her own success," Burt humbly reflects.
And yet, Burt doesn't seem to hold any malice towards Roxanne, despite having every reason in the world to do so. He seems content simply living his life as it is today; simple, within his means, and pleasantly unproblematic. Trevor mentions how the only things Burt really loves in the world are "his dog, his land, his fields, and his oatmeal in the morning," showing quite simply what kind of a person he is through and through.
Burt's Buzz is a nice, surface-exploration of a man that most of us probably recognize but couldn't name before seeing this film. The downside is that Shapiro really doesn't seem to have much of an idea what to do with such a unique subject. In addition, Burt is so soft-spoken, quiet, and humble that the documentary winds up being flabby in a sense that there's a lot of dead-weight here, and the glacial pacing doesn't help much for that either. Burt doesn't seem to have any interest in his company, nor this documentary, and those two apparent features make this documentary a tough sit, as the dedication of the subject's involvement comes into question quite frequently.
However, the documentary ends on a rather intriguing note, with Burt being interviewed on a Taiwanese TV network asking what Burt's ultimate life philosophy or ideology is. Burt simply states, to which another coworker affirms, that so many see life as the accumulation of a great dealing of things. Burt doesn't want to accumulate as much as he wants to sit back and observe the world around him. Unfortunately, in Burt's Buzz, such ideologies and concepts of the world prove more interesting to discuss than to actually watch unfold.
Directed by: Jody Shapiro.
We cut to Burt back in his small Maine home, living off the desolate land with his friend Trevor Folson, in what Trevor refers to as "Burt's horde of peculiarity." We learn that excessive publicity, social media, and adoration from fans leaves him sickened and wanting to reach for his trusty shotgun. He states that a good day is when "no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere," as he sits outside in a lawn-chair in a plaid flannel, jeans, and his trademark, unkempt beard, looking like a cross between Matthew McConaughey and Gandolf. He is anti-war and embraces being a free-spirit; someone who humbly sits back and watches the world naturally behave without tampering with nature's ways. To call him eclectic is entirely shortchanging; he's other-worldly unique and original.
After a good forty-five minutes of Burt aimlessly reciting his own personal ideology of the world and nature, we finally get into talking about Burt's Bees as a company. At first, Burt doesn't seem the least bit interested in talking about what made him so successful or what his company means to him, almost as if he didn't want a company in the first place or forgot he ever owned one. Burt tells us how the love of his life, Roxanne Quimby, essentially helped build Burt's Bees into what it currently is, and then, when Burt decided the company was growing too and retracted in his involvement in hopes to stay true to his authentic roots, Roxanne took the company as her's and more-or-less swindled him out of a great deal of money. She took Burt's Cottage Industry creation, oversaw its maximum profit potential, and took a whole of the company, seeing Burt's life as nothing more than a cute story; not a real meaningful lifestyle that he held near and dear to his heart. "She used me as a pillar to her own success," Burt humbly reflects.
And yet, Burt doesn't seem to hold any malice towards Roxanne, despite having every reason in the world to do so. He seems content simply living his life as it is today; simple, within his means, and pleasantly unproblematic. Trevor mentions how the only things Burt really loves in the world are "his dog, his land, his fields, and his oatmeal in the morning," showing quite simply what kind of a person he is through and through.
Burt's Buzz is a nice, surface-exploration of a man that most of us probably recognize but couldn't name before seeing this film. The downside is that Shapiro really doesn't seem to have much of an idea what to do with such a unique subject. In addition, Burt is so soft-spoken, quiet, and humble that the documentary winds up being flabby in a sense that there's a lot of dead-weight here, and the glacial pacing doesn't help much for that either. Burt doesn't seem to have any interest in his company, nor this documentary, and those two apparent features make this documentary a tough sit, as the dedication of the subject's involvement comes into question quite frequently.
However, the documentary ends on a rather intriguing note, with Burt being interviewed on a Taiwanese TV network asking what Burt's ultimate life philosophy or ideology is. Burt simply states, to which another coworker affirms, that so many see life as the accumulation of a great dealing of things. Burt doesn't want to accumulate as much as he wants to sit back and observe the world around him. Unfortunately, in Burt's Buzz, such ideologies and concepts of the world prove more interesting to discuss than to actually watch unfold.
Directed by: Jody Shapiro.
- StevePulaski
- Mar 18, 2015
- Permalink
Details
- Runtime1 hour 28 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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