Evoking Gordon Park’s black-and-white photographs of the New Deal Era, cinematographer Brittany Shyne’s powerful debut feature Seeds offers a portrait of a disappearing way of life for Black farmers in the American South. Its casual approach mostly reflects rhythms of life in a vérité style that’s occasionally broken when the camera is acknowledged.
The film spends most of its time with Willie Head Jr. and his great-grandchildren and grandchildren. A third-generation farmer whose great-grandfather purchased the land by digging thousands of stumps, he is forced into advocacy for his farm and way of life. On a phone call with the Farm Service Agency he presents some startling facts: in 1910, 16 million acres were owned by Black families; at present that number has dwindled to 1.5 million. Part of his frustration is the lack of bank loans and support from the USDA for Black farmers. Stuck in a loop, he makes his voice heard, telling a representative that he’s farming out of his social security check. Shyne also captures Ben Burkett, who at 89 years old continues doing the work, taking care of all aspects of his farm from invoicing to delivering his crop. In the film’s final, haunting passage he speaks of coming to terms with checking out.
While the film includes passages of a protest in DC, Shyne’s focus is on the way of life and expertise of Burkett and Head as they pride themselves in the simplicity of an honest day’s work and ability to chart their own course through ownership of their land. They do so without the modern computerized farming equipment, relying on old-school zodiac charts and some superstition. Head is also careful to save what he can legally plant, proud of his “old-fashioned corn.”
A generation has migrated northward, though Head’s granddaughter is raising her child on the farm, giving him a companion to pass the time to run around with. He fears that without the farm she’ll be cooped up in an apartment somewhere and encourages his granddaughter to settle and build a home on their land.
Seeds is most powerful when capturing these slices of life: playing with grandchildren, interacting with the community (including a younger generation), and sharing their generations of knowledge. A patient film nine years in the making, stunningly photographed by Shyne, and wonderfully edited by Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Seeds at times suggests a warmer version of a Fredrick Wiseman institutional study. Rather than watch as a fly on the wall, Shyne (whose grandfather was a sharecropper in Mississippi) is invited to preserve this valuable history of entrepreneurship and community for future generations. It’s utterly moving for the next generation to have this beautiful record of their family legacy. Seeds is a film that lives and breathes as we absorb the wisdom of these elders.
Seeds premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.