Seed: The Untold Story

Released Sep 23, 2016

1h 34m

Documentary

List

93%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

86%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds -- worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. This documentary follows passionate seed keepers who are protecting a 12,000 year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94 seed varieties have disappeared. A cadre of 10 agrichemical companies, including Syngenta, Bayer, and Monsanto, controls over two-thirds of the global seed market, reaping unprecedented profits. Farmers and others battle to defend the future of our food.

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Shioka O

Visually and contextually well observed documentary. I liked the earlier part. It starts from the extinctive seeds and plans to mass cultivation and GMO.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not to be missed. Heirloom seeds are disappearing from the world, in face of hybridization and GM seeds.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

tommaso g

The challenge of a movie about seeds is probably its very subject: scarcely cinematic stuff. Yet Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel achieve what might seem an unlikely goal: a fast paced, dramatic narration. The directors rest on some animation to pose a few of their arguments in dynamic, accessible fashion. But, most of all, they bank on a diverse group of seed daredevils, advocates and warriors. Their stories and deeds convincingly show that the future of the web of life that sustains our planet is shaped not only in the laboratories of large corporations but by passionate amateurs, brave women farming marginal lands, and local communities determined to protect food and health. Diversity of genetic material is key to ensure resilience; and the movie reflects this diversity in a variety of narratives behind a common theme. Farms, homesteads, indigenous people's lands, peasant households and local governments in Asia, Europe and the Americas articulate biodiversity across a prism of experiences and motivations. Will this movie get the audience it deserves? The directors are obviously aware of the challenge. If nature conservation can probably reach large audiences when it focuses on endangered mammals of high visibility, the disappearance of most cauliflower species may not, even if equally harmful.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Beautiful cinematography!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Frances H

An informative presentation of the need for bio-diversity in agriculture and the dangers of the use of hybrid seed and pesticides. Very scary for the future!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/20/17

Full Review

Audience Member

Overall not a bad documentary and was interesting in regards to learning about seed diversity. However the entire movie segues to a rant against Bio Tech using poisons and the community impact which felt very unrelated to the topic at hand. The movie starts by discussing seed diversity and how through cultivation we have lost a large portion of our seed diversity, and rightly so they touched on the Bio-techs impact on agricultural streamlining to specific varieties and how they impact farmers from saving seeds, and concludes with the efforts of local seed banks in saving the varieties we have and how they are trying to discover more. In the middle though they segue to an island in Hawaii and the impact Bio-Tech testing pesticides is having on it. In my opinion it really didnt belong in this documentary as while I understand Bio-Tech is hurting seed diversity, their community impacts by testing pesticides doesnt effect diversity of seeds. This segue made it feel very much like this documentary was a cleverly disguised hit piece against the Bio-tech industry disguised with seed diversity. Do not get me wrong I have no love for the Bio-tech industry either, but I do not like when a documentary tries to deceive the audience into believing they are watching something besides a hit piece on the bio-tech industry

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

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Taggart Siegel

Director

Jon Betz

Director

Vandana Shiva

Self

Jane Goodall

Self

Andrew Kimbrell

Self

Winona Laduke

Self

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Bilge Ebiri

Spirituality & Health

The filmmakers take full advantage of the visual potential of their subject, shooting the fancifully patterned and textured seeds and the dazzling varieties of plants, fruits, and vegetables-everything bursts with color and shape.

Mar 23, 2020

Full Review

Kimber Myers

Los Angeles Times

Farming may seem prosaic to the uninitiated, but "Seed: The Untold Story" reveals the poetry present in the practice through its smallest element.

Sep 29, 2016

Full Review

John DeFore

Hollywood Reporter

An eco-doc centered on the glories of diversity in the world's population of edible plants, Seed: The Untold Story contains just enough gourmet touches to draw foodies into the audience alongside the usual environmentalist crowd.

Sep 23, 2016

Full Review

Neely Swanson

Easy Reader (California)

For me, it was the people who made this story watchable.

Sep 15, 2017

Full Review

Jenny Feniak

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta)

Collective Eye Films has struck documentary gold.

Aug 17, 2017

Full Review

Indra Arriaga

Anchorage Press

SEED: The Untold Story is well-structured, paralleling the holdings of the major corporations with the geographical path of the narrative.

Jun 21, 2017

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds -- worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. This documentary follows passionate seed keepers who are protecting a 12,000 year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94 seed varieties have disappeared. A cadre of 10 agrichemical companies, including Syngenta, Bayer, and Monsanto, controls over two-thirds of the global seed market, reaping unprecedented profits. Farmers and others battle to defend the future of our food.

Director: Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz
Producer: Marisa Tomei, Marc Turtletaub, Phil Fairclough
Distributor: Collective Eye
Production Co: Collective Eye
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 23, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 8, 2017
Runtime: 1h 34m

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