VIDEO The Real Burt of Burts Bees Gets Mobbed by Fans in Taiwan
When filmmaker Jody Shapiro got ready to shoot one particular sequence for his new documentary, he told the crew to watch the opening scene of A Hard Day's Night, the classic cinematic representation of extreme fan mania. As is clear in the special preview clip above, available early via TIME, that recommendation wasn't without reason  except the person being mobbed by fans, shown here at an airport in Taiwan, isn't a Beatle. It's Burt Shavitz. If you recognize him, it's probably from the woodcut of his face that has adorned the packaging of Burt's Bees products for years. Shavitz, a Mainer who has led a life that's nothing if not unusual, is the subject of Burt's Buzz in theaters and VOD June 6, a look at the life of the man who started it all. He's been a photographer, a journalist, an environmentalist, a beekeeper  and, apparently, an icon. In fact, it was hearing about what had happened during Shavitz's prior business trips to the area and an upcoming trip to Taiwan, where Shavitz was traveling as a spokesperson for the brand, that convinced Shapiro to turn his lens toward his subject. "I'd heard about the screaming girls at the airport and I'd heard about the lines around the block, and I thought that would be a perfect opportunity to go deeper into the story," Shapiro tells TIME. Even so, his expectations for a celeb-worthy reception were exceeded. To Shavitz, however, being a celebrity is neither here nor there. He guesses in the film that part of the reason he gets such enthusiastic responses from fans of the product is that it's unusual for a picture on a tube of face product to be of a real guy. But the moment that was caught on film was just one of many for him, and it's been going on for years. "All the world's a stage," he tells TIME. "I never stopped to think about it. It was immaterial as far as I was concerned.", As the movie makes clear, what interests him most isn't being famous  it's getting home to his dog.