Seeds

Sun, Apr 20 • 2:15 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

About this event

This deeply intimate portrait captures the struggles and resilience of Black farmers working land that has been in their family for a century. Director Brittany Shyne constructs a poetic vérité documentary that immerses viewers in the daily rhythms of agrarian life in the contemporary American South: children playing, conversations from car windows, and the quiet labor of toiling in the fields. Amid the lyrical and timeless beauty emerges something more ominous, as the film exposes the systemic discrimination that threatens Black land ownership. Showing how Black farmers were historically denied the same government support and resources their white counterparts received, the film underscores the fragility of these generational legacies. Rendered in breathtaking black-and-white cinematography, 'Seeds' is both a celebration of endurance and a meditation on loss, offering an evocative exploration of identity, inheritance, and the ever-changing relationship between people and the land they cherish.

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