Seeds chronicles Black Southern farmers seeking to hold family land

Brittany Shyne’s documentary Seeds, shot in black and white and running about two hours, follows Southern Black farmers in contemporary America as they try to keep family land and sustain a way of life. The film centers on figures including Willie Head Jr. and Carlie Williams and is playing in theaters.

The film is slow-moving and lyrical, framing its subjects through seasonal rhythms and everyday moments — harvesting, church, an elder’s care — even as it turns to policy concerns. Shyne highlights the long decline in Black farm ownership and decades of discrimination by banks and the federal government; a 2022 fund meant to help farmers who experienced government discrimination, the critic notes, rolled out slowly, and Black farmers held President Joe Biden responsible.

In the second half, Head and other farmers travel to Washington to protest the delayed aid and meet officials. “The president said that he had our back,” Head tells one official. “And I voted for him. But nothing has been done.” The critic describes Seeds as more like a softly sung ballad than a journalistic account, asking viewers to observe and listen so the impersonal problems of financing and statistics become personal.

Key Topics

Culture, Seeds, Brittany Shyne, Willie Head Jr, Carlie Williams, Black Farmers