With remarkable intimacy, Seeds documents the everyday lives of Black generational farmers — cotton harvesting, chasing cows, dealing with broken machinery and financial precarities. Filmmaker Brittany Shyne’s camera relishes simple moments, turning them into striking vignettes that honor the families’ connection to the land and each other. But the sobering reality underscores the urgency of their story: Black farmers owned 16 million acres of land in 1910 but today, that number has dwindled to a fraction. The farmers in the community struggle to access funding that white farmers nearby seem to secure with ease. Through these intergenerational stories, we see the cycles of inequity and embedded racism that persist to this present day, and the signs of hope and renewal with younger generations of farmers.
Acting as director, producer, and cinematographer, Brittany Shyne crafted Seeds over the course of nine years, resulting in a documentary that’s been called “a must-see” by IndieWire, a “loving portrait” by Variety, and “a powerful debut that educates, enrages, and entertains in equal measure” by Cinepunx. Learn more about Shyne and the film by checking out her interviews with Filmmaker Magazine, Variety, The Movie Report, and Breezeway Productions.
See the film this Saturday at IU Cinema with a recorded intro from Shyne herself.
“There is no part of Seeds that doesn’t feel like a priceless heirloom, like a window into a critical cultural history that must be maintained or lest be permanently lost.” — Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
Seeds will be playing at IU Cinema on September 27 at 7pm as part of the New Americas Cinema series.