Independent Lens | Seeds | Season 28 | Episode 3 - PBS

Seeds is a visual exploration of Black farmers and the power of owning land across generations.

Seeds is a visual exploration of Black farmers and the power of owning land across generations.

Seeds is a visual exploration of centennial farmers in the Southern U.S. This film examines the decline of generational Black farmers and the significance of owning land. Through the perspectives of three different lives, the film creates an intimate portrait of farmers and the landscapes they steward, illustrating how generations of Black family farms persevere despite enduring obstacles.

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Seeds is a visual exploration of centennial farmers in the Southern U.S. This film examines the decline of generational Black farmers and the significance of owning land. Through the perspectives of three different lives, the film creates an intimate portrait of farmers and the landscapes they steward, illustrating how generations of Black family farms persevere despite enduring obstacles.

Problems playing video?  Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page.

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The faces, places, and experiences that shape our local communities.

[Car door shuts] Woman: [indistinct]... the next little run.

Woman 2: They asked if somebody came, and she said no.

[Car door shuts] [Woman grunts] Ooh!

[Birds chirp faintly] [Car door opens] [Indistinct chatter] Man: Oh, he worked for the funeral home.

[Car beeps] [Laughs] Man: That's a choice.

[Keys rattle, car starts] That's Clement and, um-- [Dinging] [Car door shuts, seatbelts click] [Dinging stops] Different man: Ahh!

Different man: Daddy, you asleep or you got a headache?

'Cause I ate all the breakfast you cooked.

[Car warning signal beeps] Woman: What's that makin' that noise?

[Beeping continues] Daughter: What church we going to?

Daughter: This is only funeral I really been to.

[Laughs nervously] Oh, man, I'm freaking out.

I haven't been to-- Man, you've been to Willow Head, man.

Carlie, you've been to Willow Head, too.

[Indistinct chatter] [Ethereal string music] [Distant rhythmic clapping joins] [Train whistles] [Organ melody and train-like whistle join the score] ♪ ♪ [Indistinct chatter] ♪ ♪ Come on and guide me, Lord!

♪ -♪ Guide me ♪ ♪ Come on and guide me, Lord ♪ -♪ Come on and guide me, Lord!

♪ -♪ Guide me ♪ ♪ Come on and guide me, Lord!

♪ ♪ Guide me ♪ -♪ Come on and guide me, Lord!

♪ -♪ Guide me ♪ ♪ Come on and guide me ♪ ♪ Guide me ♪ ♪ [Singer vocalizing] ♪ -♪ Rock me ♪ -♪ Guide me ♪ -♪ Come on and rock me ♪ -♪ Guide me ♪ ♪ Come on and rock me ♪ [Music stops abruptly] Pastor: ...commit her body to the ground.

[Engine idles] Woman: Oh, there's what's her name.

Lotta people, relatives and friends.

Before you get to that hill, if you look to the left, you'll see a green sign that says Kentavia Farms.

Young girl: And we get to see Uncle Carlie and Lois?

We won't see them in person anymore ever until we meet them in the heavenly home.

We was always told it's a home in the sky.

After you go to sleep here, and they put you in... like that thing right there and take you to where we're going right now, you stay there until the Lord calls you up to heaven.

[Indistinct chatter] Woman: 9 miles or 10 miles.

[Indistinct chatter] After supper, after we eat our dinner, we can have another one.

We had, um... Who was buried out there?

We did have somebody, I don't remember what their name was.

One was Uncle Jake, Uncle Carlie, Bobby Tave.

And one more is about to be Aunt Margaret.

[Laughs] I'll just lay my head up and rest for a minute.

1, 2, 3, when I get to 60 I have to remove it.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

[Discordant vocal hum soars] ♪ [Music fades out] [Buzzing and chirping of insects and birds] [Cotton picker vehicle whirs] [Whirring grows louder] [Vehicle powers down] [Machinery rattling, humming, and squeaking] -Hello.

Taking a picture or... Where's Trey at?

They went to go pick cotton this evening?

[Birds chirp faintly, vehicle passes in the distance] [Vehicle hums and rattles] [Indistinct rustling] [Genesis' "That's All" playing on car radio] ♪ [Corn husks rustle] ♪ [Cows lowing] ♪ OK.

You know, some farmers may have not tried to salvage it, but I try to salvage all these things and...be able to get the total benefit from it, so... Alright, get back, get back, get back.

[Truck starts] [Truck drives off, engine rattles] [Line ringing] [Faint out-going ringtone] [Background noise on phone] Woman: Hello?

[Whirring] So when they put this house down, they didn't put no... blocks through the center of it.

When he got here, before he set it down, he wanted more money.

I said "No you told me $5,000," and I had paid him all the money except 500.

So I've given him 500 and told him that's all was due to him.

He brought it here and set it down.

But he put blocks around the perimeter of it.

He didn't put none through the center, he just set it down.

So...I'm having to... you know, reset it and go through the center and put blocks through the center.

'Cause I just wasn't gonna pay him like that.

Wasn't gonna let him use me, hound me like that.

It's just, like most folks when they got the adv--they think they have the advantage of you, they, um... they take it.

[Knocking and clanking] [Drilling] [Heavy sigh] Nah, I don't still don't think that gon' do it.

[Bus engine hums] Folks say, "Well, you too young to have a great-granddaughter."

But, uh, it worked out beautiful 'cause if I live, I have a chance to enjoy her, teach her.

Thursday and Friday-- -Papa... she don't have practice.

Bring the juice here and let me pour it for you.

And the way that happened is-- Don't say I look like Jesse Mae.

And my mother here was expecting in that dream, and she come here looking like her.

She reminds me of my mother every day.

I took care of her 12 years after my Dad died.

Wouldn't none of them, like, really go and see about her.

So I, you know, didn't go anywhere.

I stayed here to see about them, both of them, before they died, my father and my mother.

So, that's why I call her Jesse Mae.

The way I think God sent my mother back to me, and she sticks with me.

I just, this is the love of my life.

I want to see her get grown and hopefully graduate from college and get married one day.

Have a husband, somebody to help her and make a life-- help make a life for her.

Alani: 'Cause it came out at school.

[Drill whirring] [Engine chugs] [Rattling] [Engine chugs and knocks] [Rapid knocking against metal] [Pecans and branches pelt tractor] [Humming] [Chuckles softly] [Nut shell cracks] [Cat and kittens mew] Woman: That one's scared.

And that one be scared to go up there now.

[Cats mewing] [Kittens mewing nearby] [Car door open indicator dings] Worker: How many bags you got, sir?

Right there on Pavo Road, right between here and Pavo.

And you been doin' farming how many years?

Well, I start the self-farming since I was about 18.

A little, maybe-- Well, I was farming before then 'cause that's all I ever did.

Hey, you blessed to be doing it that many years and still doing it.

I'll put your bags back in your truck.

Woman: Blink your eyes and look at that one again.

[Chuckles] -That's an A -Does it look any better here?

Doctor: He's got a little Conjunctivochalasis as well.

[Machine clicks] A little Conjunctivochalasis on both eyes.

[Machine clicks] I'm gonna move that over that way.

Your eyes look the way the way they should be for somebody who just had cataract surgery like you did.

But there's one thing right on the side on my face up there look like it had a-- like I had lick or something there.

[Two medical workers talk quietly to each other] Doctor: He did improve.

That's what he had I'm just looking at all the stuff, and his eyes were a little bit dry too.

We're gonna give you a prescription today so you can go get some glasses.

[Typing on keyboard] [Mouse clicking] You don't give no kind of pain medicine here do you?

[Typing] [Quiet chatter, office phones ring faintly] Woman: How are you?

What I want to know about-- what they gonna cost?

Different woman: Let me see, what insurances you have.

And do you have a supplement to your Medicare?

I ain't feeling the best today, tell you the truth.

Let me take your insurance and I can tell you exactly what it's gonna be, OK?

[Indistinct chatter] [Clears throat] Woman: OK.

Your first plan will pay $100 towards your frame and lenses, and your second plan will pay $100 towards that.

So you can get--you can put lenses into your frame and it's $184.

You can also get a new frame and we can give you a price on what that'll be.

And we'll take $100 off of that, and you just pay the difference.

So you can get your own and you can get a new one if you want.

It'll be a little higher than regular?

You can get a frame that's valued up to $180 and your lenses for just $199.

You don't got nothing no cheaper than that?

[Receipt printing] Thank you, dear.

[Birds chirp and caw in the distance] [Dog barks in the distance] [Cows lowing in the distance] Man: This farm has been in y'all family over a 100 years?

And if you did-- -You got to hold on to this.

Matter of fact me and the guy, we talking bout that yesterday.

You know, Black people were big landowners.

-And the younger generation, when the old people died out, the younger generation "I'm going up north, man.

Now, they said things up there done got tough, so they ain't got nothing to come to.

Well, a lot of people moving back now, or were because-- -But they ain't farming.

[Knocking] But, uh... it is unique.

And see, like I was telling you, farming's the backbone of the world.

That's who feed people, the farmers.

[Cows bellow] [Bird screeches] Papa: I was grinding the whole stalk once, and I meant the whole ear.

You know them there, the weevils got in there.

But it's a bunch of them out here like that.

And I said I'm gonna just-- But you can feed that to the cows.

That's what I'm feeding to them, I'm bringing it there, throwing it over the fence-- -Mm-hmm -to them, you know.

But man, there's some ears out here big as your arm up here.

That new corn wouldn't stay out here like this, though.

And that's with no spray or nothing.

But see, you got-- you got that and I can't throw that away.

That's the reason when my grand-daughter say, "Granddaddy, I'd like to live out here."

"Well, how much an acre of land gonna cost--" "Ain't gonna cost you nothing.

"You just step over there, and we'll mark it off, and I'll sign it over to you, and you can start your house," and that's why you see that house there now.

I mean, 72 acres ain't a lot of land compared to some people, but my grandaddy dug stumps.

That lady on the phone was telling me about it.

She said, "I heard about what your grandaddy done, "dug stumps for a dime apiece to make the down payment."

Payment wasn't worth but $300, but that's 3,000 stumps.

You got to dig it-- -That's $30,000 now!

So what we see now in the present, that don't mean the future gonna be that way.

[Fire crackles] [Men talk faintly nearby] Once they get connected pretty good up there, we can move.

[Wood cracking] Well, I guess I go into my savings, put tires on my 4-wheeler and shoot past you.

Yeah, 'cause I ain't moving no time soon.

[Wood creaking] [Goat bleats] Woman: You didn't cook nothing, did you, Belle?

I came, out here-- oh yeah, I had oatmeal.

Grits and bacon and toast and coffee at 10:00 when I ate breakfast.

-And so then I-- -Well, I had a good day yesterday.

We drove over at Thomasville, and I hadn't been over in a long time.

That bull, you see how the cows got they ass out this morning?

He stopped and toot the horn, and they went on back.

Towards the back of barrel house down in that sink.

Where it got bogged up the other day?

I ain't saying nothing-- -They say its wet 'cause the tractor was bogged down to the axel.

That cow look like he-- he don't feel good.

He look like he feel alright to me.

When they, you know--they may get up and graze a while.

-Walk around and then they come to sit down... or lay down whatever you want to call it.

He look like he--I see him moving his ears 'cause the flies bother.

[Cows lowing] [Engine whirs and rattles] [Cows grunt and bellow] Oh.

We saw 3 calves coming out from that trail in the woods.

I'm finna open this gate and run them suckers through here because--we got about 6 up at the other part.

And that black bull gots a new girlfriend, so he's showing out.

[Cocks gun] [Cow bellows] [Engine idles] Man: Boogie, back up a little bit!

[Cows bellow and grunt] [Gunshot] [Cows grunt] [Engine revs] [Horn beeps] [Beep] [Engine idles] [Cow grunts] [Switch wooshes] [Bird caws] [Wind blows, leaves rustle] [Engine hums, cowbells rattle] That's how my father and my mother farmed.

The great big fire in Chicago at that time in 1871.

You want to look at that sign, go back over here to this part.

My mother taught me how to read this.

This is what-- see that sign right there, the one we just looked at?

You see that lady holding that flower?

That mean anything you plant on this day, it's gonna bloom out.

It may not supposed to bloom, but it's gonna bloom.

So you don't plant on that day, a farmer don't plant on that day.

He don't plant when the sign is in the feet.

See the fish that's in the feet, that's good to plant anything that makes in the ground like peanuts or potatoes, it's good to plant it on that day.

The best day to plant something to make above the ground-- see that corn out there?

Anything you plant on that day, it's gonna make two of them.

[Grunts softly] -These keeping you busy, man?

Get one of these out from under the blanket here.

[Dog barks] -Here, one more -Here's one more.

I think I gave you one more dollar.

Supposed be colder than this tomorrow?

-That's why I was trying to get whatever done done today because you know, it's hard to start when it's cold.

[Engine sputters] I'm gonna stop and fix this.

[Engine starts and purrs] Just... don't ever get a moment.

[Truck hums, cowbells rattle] I got to stop and give this lady this little bunch.

[Car door slams] Look here, don't worry about that.

[Insect buzzing] We save seed corn.

Because of us not getting any funding, any money to farm with, we can't go buy seed.

[Bag rustles] This is what we save.

But the Roundup Ready, you can't save.

You have to buy their seed every year.

It's about $400 a bag, somewhere in there.

And a bag only plants like 2 1/2 acres, 3 acres, maybe if you stretch it.

So we can't afford that as farmers.

And you know our situation, or you've heard of it.

This is what we have to do, but it's not-- It's good because this is the old-fashioned corn.

The health for the body, the healing of the body is breded into this.

So it's a difference in the Roundup Ready and this.

And I was just looking at my corn supply.

So you know, you got peas, you plant, you save them and keep them on.

Keep them in the freezer on a chill and the seed'll preserve itself.

So that's how we have to do it out here.

We can't go to the seed market... every day, But I wanted to look at the seed.

I know it's just, the ground has been cold too long.

Papa: Come on Alani: Can I get back here?

Don't sit on that stuff right there on the floor.

That's fertilizer it will get in your clothes and won't come out.

[Truck door squeaks] [Alani grunts] No, like, don't put the potatoes.

JT, where you put them plants from?

[Machine whirs] Man: You can get 10 out of this.

Yeah, but I got some of them sold for somebody coming by here after church tomorrow.

[Pea sheller rattles rapidly] See the nice all at the top.

Leave the peas in there and take the trash out.

Uh-uh put them in that thing there.

The way you doing you'll be here till midnight.

Shake it around a little bit and pick it a little more.

[Machine rattles rapidly] [Indistinct chatter] Man: Here.

Alright, Unc Frank, we'll see you later.

[Chatter on TV] [Sweeping] TV announcer:...talking with everyone who has Medicare about the health plans from Humana that could save you money.

These are all your plans to combine medical and prescription drug coverage.

Always affordable monthly plan premiums, and in some areas, if you have... -...ever cheated on him?

Maury Povich: This is your husband.

I have never cheated on him once in my life.

[Argument continues on TV] Woman two: Stop lying!

[Applause] Announcer: Both of Katie's children.

Maury: Who's the father of that little girl?

[Yelling on TV] [TV plays in background] Woman: What's the matter, Lois?

[Lois moaning] You want to lay down?

Carlie, did she grunt like that all night?

No, some night she do more than she do others, but she's doing a little more this evening than I seen her do in quite some time.

You want to sit up a little on the little-- Yeah!

[Lois continues groaning] Just keep her from getting all stalled up, huh?

I used to do it all the time back then.

I reckon maybe I'm just getting old and forgetful.

[Lois groaning] The muscles aren't stretching.

'Cause what it does, it keeps the muscles stretched.

I mean keeping her from drawing up, so... Do this all day, all day and never move her muscle or nothing.

[Lois moans] It ain't good on her health, too good, so... [Carlie sneezes] [Piglets grunt and snort, fly buzzes] [Shuffling in trailer] [Hammering] [Clattering] [Wood splitting] Come on off here.

See this cabinet you hang your clothes in?

I'm gonna take it out and take it home and put it up in my room.

I'm gonna take all these like... see all this right here?

I'm gonna take these and put them in the kitchen.

And them doors down there like we got under the sink, See, I'm gonna take these out and put them down there.

[Knock] [Tapping] [Radio plays faintly] ♪ [Indistinct] Alani: Pe-can.

Roscoe: I think I seen you at a-- on NewsBreak.

Was you in Atlanta a few months ago?

Yeah, I was in Atlanta a few months ago.

They had something about the Black farmers in this area were protesting 'cause they were giving all the subsidies-- -Yeah.

Yeah, but, you know, that's what we was up there about.

They gave another agriculture company 90 million.

They gave all them other farmers opposite of us, they paid the in 3 days.

They telling us we got to wait 10 months.

[Laughs] And the bill been-- the money's there.

Joe Biden done signed it But the Secretary of Agriculture don't want to pay us.

See that's why-- you know the story.

So that's what we were doing up there.

They been trying to get this for 30 years.

Some of them died and all, and they didn't get nothing.

-Right -And their land been taken... the whole 9 yards, so that's what we was up there doing the other day.

And Secretary Vilsack paid some farmers the day before when they found out we was coming.

-So Vilsack went on and paid some farmers' debts.

See, but the actual discrimination thing, he don't want to touch that 'cause that mean he got to hand you raw money and they don't want to hand us no--ha ha-- They don't want to hand-- you know how it go.

Now they'll give us a penny or two, but when it come to dollars-- Yeah, big money.

They don't even want to think about that with us, see, but some of them farmers been going through this-- myself been going through it 25 years.

You can't get nothing from the bank.

The first place gonna turn you down is the bank.

After you get turned down by the bank, you got to go to FSA or FHA.

When you go there, they already done talk with the bank.

That's your last resource is the FSA, but they won't-- they won't loan you nothing.

See, if they don't loan you that money to farm, pay your taxes, and pay your payment, they take your land.

A lot of people don't know what's going on.

But anytime they see where we come together as a group, they always leave us out.

It's the same way about the land and the farm.

Look how many Black farmers you had years ago.

In 1910, it was 16 million acres of land owned by us here in this country, 16 million.

Now that's a statistic you can pull up in D.C., Washington, D.C.

Mention that to your people if you can.

We ain't thinking about that now, we thinking about other things.

You know, Cadillacs and Mercedes that type of stuff.

But just throw it out there sometime to your congregation.

You know, we don't realize in the morning, the meal you eat, where it come from.

You know, how'd it get there, how it started, where it started from, see what I'm saying?

We have to know where all our help come from.

[Truck rumbles] [Gate creaks] [Dogs bark and howl] [Chickens cluck] How did your sister enjoy her trip?

I don't know, I haven't been there to see her.

Did she take some picture with her camera?

I can ask her for you when she come back.

'Cause when I was in school, I used to go on field trips sometime.

I went all the way around the state of Georgia one time.

We went to Savannah, all around to Donalson and-- We went some of everywhere.

They trying to fix the cotton picker right now.

Oh, that's what that man brought that big old thing behind that thing for?

But they did get finished out there, didn't they?

Oh, they not through picking that out there?

[Machine whirs, hand lever rattles] [Spindles whir and rattle] [Cotton picker whirs] [Birds sing nearby] [Machine rattles and creaks] [Loud whirring of vehicles and machinery] [Cotton picker groans and rumbles] [Hydraulics whir and whistle] [Machines grind and whir] [Low tonal music blends with tones of machinery] ♪ ♪ You on break now.

They 'bout to kill him over yonder.

Your problem's you can't hold it on the road.

♪ [Indistinct chatter] ♪ [Cotton picker hums faintly] ♪ [Kittens mew] [Dog barks in the distance] TV: Emmet, you're gonna explain yourself?

Anita and me were both worried sick.

[Scene continues on TV] ["Ain't Misbehavin'" plays on TV] ♪ Singer: ♪ No one to talk with ♪ ♪ All by myself ♪ ♪ No one to walk with ♪ ♪ But I'm happy on a shelf ♪ ♪ Ain't misbehavin' ♪ ♪ I'm savin' my love for you ♪ ♪ ♪ Now I know for certain ♪ ♪ Your the one I love ♪ [Song becomes distant] ♪ I'm through with flirtin' ♪ ♪ It's just you I'm dreamin' of ♪ [Song fades out, engine fades in] [Engine hums] [Engine idles] [Vehicle creaks and whirs] The president said that he had our back.

I farm out of my Social Security check, which is only $900 a month.

I'm trying to maintain this land and keep it.

The farmer next to me get all the money he wants.

Even though he's white, he get all the funding he needs.

We can't produce a crop so we can continue to pay our bills.

What are we supposed to look forward to?

Associate director: I do want to just, like, level set, that on this meeting, it's not gonna provide you with all the answers that you want.

I don't want there to be any misunderstanding that this is all gonna be solved in one phone call because it's not, but we're gonna do everything we can to help you.

Back to that outreach question... Come on.

[Baby gurgles and wheezes] You feel that?

You tell you don't be outside enough when the wind blow, you have to get your breath.

Papa let you ride much as you want.

[Baby fusses] I'm fixin' to sit down.

[Baby coos] You got to go to sleep.

[Rain pours outside] [Thunder] [Papa sings] ♪ Now go to sleepy, papa baby ♪ ♪ Go to sleep right now ♪ ♪ Go to sleepy, papa baby ♪ ♪ And when you wake you'll feel better ♪ -[Baby coos] -Heh heh.

♪ Go to sleepy, papa baby ♪ [Thunder] ♪ Go to sleep right now ♪ ♪ Go to sleepy, papa baby ♪ ♪ And when you wake, you'll have a little cake ♪ ♪ In the icebox now ♪ [Baby coos] You got to get your rest.

[Laughs] You got to get your sleep.

♪ Now go to sleepy, daddy baby ♪ ♪ Go to sleep right now ♪ ♪ Go to sleepy, papa baby ♪ [Voice fades] [Line ringing] Man: Hello?

Carey been trying to call you on his cell phone.

I think he said he got the peas on the back of his truck.

I come home, Martha was laying on the floor.

Oh, he said come home, Martha was laying in the floor.

Go down there and see about Martha.

Go back there and see if you could help with Martha.

When he got home just a while ago Martha was out on the floor she ain't got back yet.

Andre running his health down, don't he?

She ain't come out, she must-- It ain't no truck down here with peas on it.

The way she was laying, she couldn't remember where she was coming from.

She says she knows she was cooking, 'cause her head was-- she was laying like this.

I got the pillow off the couch, and I got down on my knees.

I held her head up once she was on the floor.

And I put a pillow up under her head.

'Cause Walter was trying to call-- we was trying this morning.

Charles want to know if that lady was still there.

I asked her-- I said, "Your head or anything hurt?"

That's how come I-- Walter should check often.

'Cause he come in, and she was on the floor.

Probably for lunch, but sometime Walter be riding around and be gone all day long.

He said he starting not to come in.

We all got to go one day, ain't we?

Your cotton turning out pretty good?

[Cat meows] [Fireworks whistle, crack loudly] [People cheer] [Band plays country reggae tune] [Singers vocalizing on soundtrack] ♪ [No audible dialogue] ♪ ♪ [Insects and birds chirp and buzz] [Radio plays "All Night Long" by Mary Jane Girls] ♪ [Indistinct chatter] ♪ [Gate creaks] Green.

One thing about a watermelon field, you always can come back and find one more, can't you?

[Chuckles] Damn, this some good eating.

Man: I guess I might as well go on around.

Boy: Don't eat the whole thing now.

This thing got a lot of seeds in them.

[Zips bag] These ain't as scarred up as the rest of them.

Alright, got to go fight the government.

Woman: Everyone just get in like 3 or 4 lines, shoulder to shoulder.

Man: Alright, we about to-- we about to start snapping some photos.

Everybody balance themselves out and line up accordingly.

Organizer: But when they move too fast for-- Josh, let me say, The American Rescue Plan, let me just ask this here-- The Senate wrote the legislation and made it law.

They Handed it down to the Congress.

They took it to the president, he signed it.

We the only people in America that the 3 legislative branches of government can endorse something, and we the only ones that cannot receive the benefit of it.

And they always got to come up with a process.

They didn't have to come up with a process when Donald Trump paid out that $46 million in 3 days.

And the white farmers that, when you look at those demographics, how is it that he got all of them paid and still we is in the shadows waiting for them to do something for us?

So what's the problem with them suing?

Josh, Josh, Senator Warnock-- But, Josh, you saying Senator Warnock was going up there and he was gonna argue the issue.

Well, he don't need to be arguing the issue, he need to lay down the law.

Now, he didn't argue the issue when he asked us for our vote.

We need somebody with a backbone to go up there.

And if he don't want to do it, we'll go.

It's time to put our seeds in the ground if we gonna be productive this year.

He know what he's doing when he say, "by the end of the year."

Because if we don't get it in the next 30 days, we ain't gonna be able to make it-- and it'll be another year that we've lost profit and another year of discrimination that done cause us economic loss and economic harm.

You have plenty of food on your table.

Your tractor is not in shambles on the farm.

With nothing, we can't apply in the banks for money.

And you saying, wait 9 more months?

Let's go get this done so we won't have to come back up here.

You pick the people, we'll go get it done.

We'll find out what Joe Biden is made of.

Ask Joe Biden to sign the executive order.

You can argue about it later in the courts.

He's sending money over there to Ukraine every day.

-And now we got to sit here and beg?

When he came to South Carolina and asked for our vote, asked for our support?

And we don't want him putting us off.

[Breaks hiss] [Inaudible] [Insects buzz and chirp] [Cows low, crow caws] [Squeaking] [Engine Rumbling] [Papa grunts] [Fly buzzes] [Cranking] [Radio plays in background] [Metal creaks and grinds] [Machine rumbling] [Corn sifts and clatters] [Clattering] [Din of machinery continues] [Insects and frogs chirp] [Man shouts] Belle: Yeah.

[Indistinct] Belle: Oh, you got a deer in there?

We gonna make some good sausage out of him.

[Birds, insects, and frogs chirp] [Water trickling] Margaret: Are you looking at it?

They're having that lady's funeral tomorrow.

I haven't went to a funeral since Carlie and Lois buried.

[Sighs] It don't seem like they ever been here now, do it?

'Cause Lois used to be sitting up in there, wasn't she?

And you and him be riding around looking?

Just feel it like, just feel it hard, like-- Just take your hand and-- See how soft it is?

[Leaves rustle] [Cows lowing] I kind of... not dreamed about this day, but somewhere I had the... foreseeability to see it coming.

This very same thing, you know, being able to walk over to my children's house.

Not having to drive miles and miles and miles and they live in other states and stuff.

Which I do have a son in Atlanta, but that's by his choice.

But I could walk over and see my children.

Or they could walk over and see me, so... Or if they need help, I was right next to them.

A lot of that has to do with what you want out of life.

And this is one thing I wanted, my children to be close to me, so I could see after them.

See that corn should have been out.

And that field should have been turned or tilled so we can plant now, but I got to catch up to that.

That's the only part bothers me about this.

He was thinking about you, couldn't go to sleep.

Alani: My cat hat fell off when I did a cartwheel.

[Clapping] Papa: See when we up there fighting for the land, this is what-- this the image be in my mind.

Will they be locked up in apartment complexes across the country looking out the window all the time when they could be out the door on the land.

Those are the things we farmers think about.

You're holding onto that toy real good.

I want to see him on the bicycle, right?

[Alani whines, annoyed] Alani: Stop!

-See even if he don't-- if he just want to come out here and play around, he can do it in his lifetime on his great-great-great-great granddaddy and grandmother, ain't that right, man?

You just ride around and drive your tractor, the whole thing and be free, boy.

[Piano plays] [Drums join] ♪ Choir and congregation: ♪ We praise thee o God ♪ ♪ For the son of thy love ♪ ♪ For Jesus who died ♪ ♪ And is now gone above ♪ ♪ Hallelujah thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ ♪ All glory and praise ♪ ♪ To the Lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ Who have born all our sin ♪ ♪ Who has cleansed every stain ♪ ♪ Hallelujah thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ Pastor: Amen.

Woman: In the newness of life, in the honor and the glory of thy name.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Pastor: At this given time, you may take the holy sacrament in remembrance of Jesus Christ For the remission of sins.

♪ Likewise, you may take the juice now representing the blood of Jesus Christ... ♪ to be shed for us for remission of our sins.

♪ You may rise, go in the newness of life.

♪ Choir and congregation: ♪ Saved my soul ♪ Pastor: You saved my soul.

♪ You saved my soul ♪ Pastor: You saved my soul.

♪ You saved my soul ♪ Pastor: I just want to... ♪ I just want to thank you ♪ [Song fades] ♪ ♪ [Birds chirp] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Leaves rustle and crunch] ♪ [Faint birds chirping] ♪ [Horse clomps] ♪ [Faint rattle and splash] [Seeds sift and clatter] ♪ Get out!

♪ [Music fades] [Music ends] [Cats mew faintly] Carlie: This year, I had a birthday.

I was 89, and so I'm the oldest, one of the 10 living, and, uh, so I'm still around.

Don't know how long 'cause sometime like I feel now like I'm dreaming.

I just don't know, so much I dream about, people and places and things we used to do.

I wonder is it some kind sign behind that?

[Chuckles] Is the Lord telling me something, you know?

You know, sometime I think He shows you things ahead of time, and it's up to the individual or whoever, and if you know the Lord well enough, you can understand the meaning of some of them stuff which you've seen-- be seeing in your dreams or sleep.

And I, uh-- don't want it to be a fret to me, but at the same time I be watching all those [indistinct] open that if it do, it won't be no strange, it won't be nothing shocking to me.

It be something I, sort of had a vision of to start with.

And around through the time, you know, we as children growed up and we always liked the day, enjoy one another, going different places.

Like to hunt rabbits and coons and turkeys and things.

Sometimes them turkeys come right up out there and uh, and they come all up here in the yard sometime.

But not all the--they come up here same time a year.

And we used to have a good little bit of them things around here, but they done about kill them out now.

But that's just a part of some of the things used to happen around here and... 'cause right now I ain't... I got problems, you know.

It was about a like a vein like that.

And Margaret was telling me, come to find out it was malignant.

Then they mess around cut that little part out.

But anyhow, it was a little something in that vein right in my chest up there.

And, uh, so far the Lord's been good to me.

And I've been--it happen like, it happen about 5 years ago I think.

I never fell sick or nothing, but I just always try to take care of myself and not do things I ain't have no business doing.

And because used to, I used to like to have vegetables and stuff year round like in the wintertime everybody can come and get vegetables and stuff like that.

And cane and syrup and that kind of stuff.

Well, it weren't the best, but we made a living at it and we our enjoyed life.

And so the Lord blessed us to still be around, enjoy life.

[Coughs softly] [Cats mew plaintively] Margaret: Get out of here.

[Door rattles shut] ♪ [Woman vocalizing] ♪ ♪ Announcer: Independent Lens is made possible by the Action Circle for Independent Lens with major funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Acton Family Giving; the Ford Foundation; the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation; and contributions from the following... Additional support for this series has been provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Preview: S28 Ep3 | 30s | Seeds is a visual exploration of Black farmers and the power of owning land across generations. (30s)

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