Seeds

The loaded pickup trucks rattle as they carry off the day’s crops—buckets of pecans, giant watermelons, turnips, and potatoes. During the harvest, the air fills with bits of cotton fluff. In contemplative black-and-white scenes, Seeds follows the rhythms of daily life among African American farmers in the Deep South of the United States. Their homesteads, officially certified as Centennial Farms, have been in the same families for over a hundred years. But how much longer this land can remain in the hands of the small community is uncertain.

In 1910, the Black community in this region owned an estimated 6.5 million acres of land. Today, only a fraction remains. While white farmers in the area enjoy easy access to financing, Black farmers face systemic discrimination and poverty. Improvising as they go, they have somehow managed to make ends meet.

In this her debut film—winner of the American Documentary Award at the Sundance Film Festival—director and cinematographer Brittany Shyne crafts a poetic yet harrowing portrait of a fragile existence.