Award-Winning Documentary Seeds Screens at Billings Farm & Museum

WOODSTOCK, VERMONT... Billings Farm & Museum’s Woodstock Vermont Film Series presents Seeds, a luminous and deeply moving documentary filmed in striking black and white. Both an elegy and a celebration, this film is a poetic meditation on land, lineage, and the enduring legacy of Black generational farmers in the American South. 

Directed by Brittany Shyne, Seeds follows three Black farming families as they plant, harvest, tell stories, and care for their land while confronting a sobering reality: of the more than 16 million acres once owned by Black farmers, only a small fraction remains today. Through scenes of cotton harvesting, chasing cows, and mending broken machinery, the film honors the quiet resilience, dignity, and deep-rooted knowledge passed down through generations. 

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Seeds won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize and has received widespread critical acclaim. Shyne was recently honored with the International Documentary Association’s Emerging Filmmaker Award, and the film has been named to the shortlist for an Academy Award. One reviewer described Seeds as “a sacred space where these families can be themselves with dignity and pride.” 

At an unhurried pace, Seeds allows viewers to fully experience the beauty of connection - to land, family, and tradition, while thoughtfully weaving together broader themes of race, class, culture, identity, and inheritance. The result is a stunning portrait that is both a lament for what has been lost and a celebration of what endures. 

The Woodstock Vermont Film Series is dedicated to sharing place-based stories of people near and far, engaging our audiences, and inspiring conversations that increase connections with each other and our world. Films will be screened on select Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00PM in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater through March 22, 2026. Tickets for all regular screenings are $15 per person and $12 for Billings Farm & Museum members.         

The Woodstock Vermont Film Series is curated and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jay Craven and produced by Billings Farm & Museum with generous community support from lead sponsors Mascoma Bank and the Woodstock Inn & Resort. https://billingsfarm.org/filmseries/  

Photos Courtesy of Chicken & Egg Films