A powerful new documentary, filmed over seven years, offers a starkly beautiful and politically charged look at the lives of Black farmers fighting to preserve their heritage in the American South.
A Vanishing Way of Life Captured in Stark Beauty
Director Brittany Shyne's film, Seeds, is a remarkable cinematic achievement. Shot entirely in black-and-white, the documentary observes its subjects across the seasons, lending a visual sumptuousness and timeless quality to their daily rituals. The camera captures moments of profound beauty, such as giant machines harvesting cotton, leaving a whirl of white fluff dancing in the air.
Yet this beauty is underpinned by a painful history. The choreography of farm work is deeply imbued with the legacy of slavery in the United States. For the families portrayed, owning land is not merely an economic concern; it represents hard-won autonomy, a direct connection to labour, and the crucial preservation of a cultural heritage to pass to future generations.
Systemic Barriers and Financial Precarity
Despite their relentless work ethic, the farmers face immense systemic challenges that threaten their existence. The documentary highlights the stark disparity in access to federal support. While their white neighbours receive aid with relative ease, Black farmers are entangled in near-insurmountable bureaucratic red tape, resulting in critically long waits for vital funding.
This institutional discrimination, combined with soaring operational costs and taxes, has led to many Black families losing their land. One of the film's most poignant sequences follows 89-year-old Carlie Williams, a farmer since his teens, as he struggles to afford a simple pair of prescription glasses, laying bare the financial fragility of this life.
Most of the farmers featured belong to an older generation, a silent implication that the profound precariousness of this vocation makes it an unsustainable choice for younger people, risking the end of a lineage.
Resilience, Protest, and the Cycle of Hope
However, Seeds is far from a mere elegy. It is also a film about resilience and activism. The community is shown fighting back, including organising a march to Washington to protest the shortcomings of the Biden administration's policies regarding agricultural support.
Echoing the natural cycles it documents, Shyne's film structures itself around the seasons of life, bookended by a funeral and the open sky. While a dose of melancholy for a vanishing world is palpable, the documentary ultimately sows hope for a better future harvest. It is a testament to endurance in the face of overwhelming odds.
Seeds will be showing at Bertha DocHouse in London from 23 January.
