Seeds

Filmmaker and cinematographer Brittany Shyne captures nearly a century of Black farming life in Seeds, a quiet, luminous portrait of family, legacy, and land in the American South. Shot over the course of nine years and drawn from more than 400 hours of footage, the film follows three generations of Black farmers in Georgia and Mississippi, offering a rare look at the daily lives of these stewards of the land from cotton harvesting and cattle wrangling to kitchen table conversations. Through a patient, observant lens, Shyne reveals both the beauty and the burdens of staying rooted.

In 1910, Black farmers owned 16 million acres of land in the US — a holding that has significantly diminished over the past century. Seeds makes visible the enduring structural inequities that affect Black agricultural families, from limited access to credit and subsidies to the fragility of passing land down through generations. Winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2025, this extraordinary debut meditates on inheritance, survival, and the quiet power of holding on.

It’s a work of political activism through sheer lyricism.

David Fear, Rolling Stone

An incredibly rewarding journey, a film indebted to the past that feels brilliantly alive.

A-, Esther Zuckerman, IndieWire

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.

Robert Daniels, roberebert.com