EXCLUSIVE: Primetime Emmy Award nominee Tessa Thompson and her production company Viva Maude are executive producers of Brittany Shyne’s Sundance Film Festival-winning documentary, Seeds, which was submitted for consideration at the Academy Awards this year. Thompson joins as an EP with Kishori Rajan of Viva Maude.
Walking productions
The documentary, which won the US Documentary Grand Jury Prize earlier this year, is a portrait of generational black farmers in the American South, following their joys and struggles, the importance of land ownership and the fragility of inheritance. In 1910, black farmers owned 16 million acres of land. Since then, more than 90% of this land has been lost.
“Brittany Shyne’s Seeds is a quietly extraordinary work: lucid and sensitive to the textures of an American history too often neglected. It reminds us that being alive means slowing down enough to notice. At Viva Maude, we look for works that demand presence and expand the aperture of who is in the frame. Seeds is a rare film,” Thompson said.
“We are delighted that Tessa and Viva Maude are joining the Seeds team. Tessa’s passionate dedication to elevating and magnifying boundary-pushing stories and unique perspectives has been incredibly inspiring. As we continue to share this untold and poignant story of generations of Southern farmers, we couldn’t ask for more enthusiastic and supportive collaborators to join us on this journey,” said Shyne.
After its world premiere at Sundance, Seeds has gone on to play at over 70 festivals around the world, winning over a dozen awards including Grand Jury Awards at the Full Frame Film Festival, SFFILM Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and, most recently, received five Cinema Eye Honors nominations, three IDA Awards nominations and was selected for DOC NYC’s Winner’s Circle.
Seeds was also nominated for two Critics Choice Awards for Best First Feature Documentary and Best Cinematography, and received the Maysles Documentary Center Albie Award, which recognizes the year’s top Oscar contenders. Shyne was shortlisted for this year’s IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award, which will be presented at the IDA Awards ceremony in December. Next November, the film will be screened at IDFA, LDNDOCS and in Turin, before its qualifying theatrical release.
The documentary is produced by Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Danielle Varga and Shyne. Other EPs include Leslie Fields-Cruz and Maida Lynn.
This fall, Thompson starred in the Nia DaCosta-directed period drama, Hedda, which is a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s famous 1891 stage drama. Thompson is set to receive the Tribute Award at the Gotham Awards and is also nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance for the Amazon MGM Studios title.
Thompson is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Jeff Bernstein at Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein. Shyne is repped by Cinetic Media.
