NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum will present the U.S. theatrical premiere of Brittany Shyne’s SEEDS on Friday, January 16.
As both director and cinematographer, debut filmmaker Brittany Shyne immerses the viewer in the absorbing rhythms and intimate materiality of African American farm life in Georgia. Shyne’s patient, poetic eye and ear attune to one farmer’s tender attention to his great-granddaughter, alongside the sights and sounds of a community’s honest day’s work—repurposing spent corn cobs for feed, shelling pecans for market, the profound rumble of a massive cotton harvester. As the story of dwindling government support for Black farmers unfolds, exquisite black-and-white imagery lovingly captures the rough-worn hands, faces, and tools-of-trade of octogenarian patriarchs fighting to preserve their family legacies and century-old homesteads.
SEEDS had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded the US Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, and was also featured at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Grand Jury Award winner), as well as the San Francisco International Film Festival (Golden Gate Award winner), Seattle International Film Festival (Grand Jury Award winner), Provincetown International Film Festival (John Schlesinger Documentary Award winner), and more. The film is nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards and is an Albie Award Honoree by the Maysles Documentary Center. SEEDS is shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature Film.
“Gorgeous… [a] must-see... an incredibly rewarding journey, a film indebted to the past that feels brilliantly alive.” – Esther Zuckerman, IndieWire
"Quietly stunning… Brittany Shyne constructs an empathetic portrait of Black agrarian life while also revealing threats to its survival. Not a journalistic investigation but a poetic contemplation that recalls Garrett Bradley’s TIME and RaMell Ross’ HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING. In the early 20th century, Black farmers owned 16 millions acres of land; today that number has shrunk to roughly a million. With SEEDS, Shyne helps spotlights the farmer, the mature and the budding, fighting to protect what remains.” – Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
“Poetic and powerful… hypnotically soulful… 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 or lest be permanently lost.” – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
“Nine years in the making, [SEEDS is] as patient and persevering as the Black farmers it documents. A languid, loving portrait of Black farmers in the South, SEEDS is a mixture of celebration and lament. Family farming has been endangered, but for African American farmers, the land—holding onto it, cultivating it—is even more precarious and precious.” – Lisa Kennedy, Variety
“A visual love letter to the Black, rural South, SEEDS director-cinematographer Brittany Shyne captures a rare snapshot of Black America, where land ownership is a birthright and legacy. [Shyne] gives space to the plurality of Black stories, keeping family, land, community, and history at their center…creat[ing] a sacred space where these families can be themselves with dignity and pride. She captures their gentleness and rightfully projects it as strength.” – Ronda Racha Penrice, The Wrap
SEEDS (2025, 123 min.) Directed by Brittany Shyne. Executive Produced by Maida Lynn, Tessa Thompson. Produced by Danielle Varga, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Brittany Shyne. Editing: Malika Zouhali-Worrall. Cinematography: Brittany Shyne. Sound Designers: Daniel Timmons, Ben Kruse. Original Music: Robert Aiki, Aubrey Lowe. Featuring Belle Williams, Carlie Williams, Ben F. Burkett, Walter Williams, Margaret Williams, Lois Williams, Clara Williams Cradle, Carey Williams, Andre Dismuke, Trey Dismuke, Ebere Cunningham, Bryan Williams, Bryan (Boogie) Williams, Lee Brown, Luke Stinson, Tod Williams, Wilbert Fitzgerald, Willie Joe Daniels. USA.
