‘I'm still kind of processing it': Wright State grad talks ‘Seeds,' top honor at Sundance

Yahoo

21-02-2025

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A Wright State University alum recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
The film festival began in 1978, and this year's festival saw a local face take home one of their most prestigious awards.
'I'm still kind of processing it. You know, it's obviously incredible and it's a very huge acknowledgment, you know. And I'm really grateful for it, but like, it's like every day I'm like, wow, this really happened, you know?'
Meet Brittany Shyne.
She's a filmmaker who directed, shot and produced the feature documentary 'Seeds,' the Sundance festival jury's pick for best documentary feature.
The film is about generational and legacy farmers in the southern United States, specifically centennial farmers (those who've owned their land for at least 100 years — one of the family's presented in the film have owned their farm since 1883).
'So really it's about, you know, the continuation of these family farms and who's going to take over, but also showing like the intergenerational connectedness with this film,' Shyne describes.
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The film lingers on these lives, using black and white cinematography to express that feeling. The look of the film was inspired in part by the portraiture photography of artists such as P.H. Poke, Roy DeCarava and Gordon Parks.
'My film is a very kind of a slow paced film. It's kind of understated and I wanted to kind of relish in this kind of geographical landscape. So, I really wanted the imagery to kind of linger in the place. Linger in this specific time that was kind of dwindling away.'
Shyne began working on 'Seeds,' during her time as a graduate student at Northwestern University, post graduation from Wright State.
By then she had already taken to the tutelage of Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar, which would eventually lead to cinematography work on their Oscar-winning documentary 'American Factory,' and the Untilted Dave Chappelle documentary that was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shyne calls them 'pioneers in their field,' spotlighting their rigorous and meticulous work ethic as key influences on her process.
From about 2015 to a couple weeks before Sundance, Shyne worked in a myriad of ways to get the film completed.
From fundraising (which was the biggest hurdle against the completion of the film), to networking, to several trips to Georgia and Mississippi to film, to post-production, the work was a 10-year process of fortitude for Shyne and her collaborators.
Shyne says that two big motivators for completing this film were her parents' guidance, as well as the need to present the story of 'Seeds,' to the world.
'There's so many black stories that — kind of — can get lost, you know, or not duly acknowledged. And I found that there's something very profound about this story, about legacy, the maintenance of legacy, you know, you're archiving, so things are not being forgotten.'
She says the extra time was ultimately beneficial to the film.
Fast forward to Jan. 25, a surely chilly Saturday morning, and the first time that Sundance audiences got to view the film for the first time.
Shyne was among the crowd as well, with family, and the support system that helped bring the film to the screen.
Her viewing experience was a juxtaposition of self-critique and of witnessing, seeing how others connected to the film.
She recalls the experience being a 'whirlwind.'
'I can't replicate the experience I had because there's so much — many moments that people were just like so open about their own experiences.' Shyne reminisces. 'It was just very lovely, and I'm always just astounded — kind of — how well it did and just — you know — the connections I made too.'
Now, post Grand Jury Prize Award, and alongside burgeoning praise, 'Seeds,' remains on a festival tour.
'The film's going to be on the festival circuit throughout this year.'
Shyne says that next week she'll tour the film at True/False FIlm Festival in Missouri before traveling to Greece the following week and then to Copenhagen.
As she continues her own journey as a filmmaker, her advice to other filmmakers is to follow the stories that you're passionate about and to build community with fellow artists.
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