“The fate of humankind is resting on these genetic resources… seeds.” – Cary Fowler
Opens May 22 at Cinema Village in New York City
Opens May 29 at Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles
From Director/Producer Sandy McLeod
Executive Producers Stanley Buchthal, Abigail Disney
Supervising Producer Chiemi Karasawa
NEW YORK – Kino Lorber announced that SEEDS OF TIME will be released in theaters in New York (May 22 at Cinema Village), Los Angeles (May 29 at Laemmle Music Hall). Simultaneously, the film will also screen in select theaters nationwide as part of Kino Lorber’s “Alive Mind Cinema” subscription theatrical program. Subsequently, the film will be released on all VOD platforms.
The film, which debuted at the SXSW Film Festival, most recently screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film is directed by Sandy McLeod, an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker.
Synopsis: A perfect storm is brewing as agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler races against time to protect the future of our food. Gene banks of the world are crumbling, crop failures are producing starvation inspired rioting, and the accelerating effects of climate change are already affecting farmers globally. But Fowler’s journey, and our own, is just beginning. From Rome to Russia and, finally, a remote island under the Arctic Circle, his passionate and personal journey may hold the key to saving the one resource we cannot live without: our seeds.
For more than 30 years, Cary Fowler has led a distinguished career in conservation and use of crop diversity. SEEDS OF TIME is his story.
Background: 10,000 years ago the biggest revolution in human history occurred: we became agrarians. We ceased hunting and gathering and began to farm, breeding and domesticating plants. As the production of high yielding, uniform varieties has increased, diversity has declined. We are confronted with the global pressures of feeding a growing population, in a time when staple crops face new threats from disease and changing climates. Crop diversity pioneer Cary Fowler travels the world, educating the public about the dire consequences of our inaction. Along with his team at The Global Crop Diversity Trust in Rome, Cary struggles to re-invent a global food system so that it can, in his words: “last forever.” With a passion few possess, Cary set out to build the world’s first global seed vault – a seed collection on a scale larger than any other. How can we best maintain the diversity that still exists for our food crops? How do we create new diversity to adapt our fields to a changing climate? The answers are as complex as the system they intend to fix. And it will require a combination of efforts: from scientists, plant breeders, researchers, farmers, politicians, and even gardeners.
Director’s Statement – Sandy McLeod: When I met Cary Fowler a whole new world opened up to me. I realized that, although I thought I knew a thing or two about food, the issues that he was grappling with were entirely new to me. And that those issues, largely concerning food security, are issues that anyone who likes to eat should not only know about, but also have a say in too. Cary Fowler is a guy who has almost single-handedly created something of great value for the Global Community. I can’t think of any other global endeavors that have the kind of absolute value for all of us that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds. Our food system is not sustainable or secure and this is a problem that affects us all. Without a good agricultural foundation we can’t have sustainable agriculture and without sustainable agriculture, we will not have a sustainable future.
About the Director:
Sandy McLeod is an Academy Award nominated independent filmmaker, with experience in most of the major areas of filmmaking. Her directorial debut was in music videos, when she directed a series for VH1 called The Sixties. Her next film was Doll Day Afternoon, a short film she directed for Saturday Night Live. The film went on to be shown in museums nationwide, including the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Dallas Museum of Fine Art. She worked with Jordan Cronenweth and Jonathan Demme to establish innovative textural elements of the landmark film Stop Making Sense. Then she conceptualized and directed a Talking Heads’ music video, which was featured at the New York Film Festival and is now part of the permanent collection in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. An AIDS music video that she directed is also part of MOMA’s permanent collection. She was the production designer of Swimming to Cambodia, a one-man show by Spaulding Gray. A further collaboration with Jonathan Demme resulted in a documentary for Channel 4 called, Haiti, Dreams of Democracy. Sandy has been a long-time collaborator with John Sayles as second unit director. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America. She directed an Academy Award nominated short documentary called Asylum–a film about a Ghanaian woman who sought political asylum in the United States to escape female genital mutilation. The film also won a Gracie and was nominated for an Emmy. Seeds of Time is her first feature length documentary film.
About Kino Lorber:
With a library of 800 titles, Kino Lorber Inc. has been a leader in independent art house distribution for over 30 years, releasing over 25 films per year theatrically under its Kino Lorber, Kino Classics, and Alive Mind Cinema banners, including four Academy Award® nominated films in the last six years. In addition, the company brings over 70 titles each year to the home entertainment market with DVD and Blu-ray releases under its 5 house brands, distributes a growing number of third party labels, and is a direct digital distributor to all major platforms including iTunes, Netflix, HULU, Amazon, Vimeo, and others. More info is available at http://www.kinolorber.com
About Kino Lorber’s Alive Mind Cinema:
Specializing in documentaries in the areas of enlightened consciousness, secular spirituality and culture, Alive Mind Cinema seeks to provide audiences with intellectually provocative films that deliver the “aha” response of a transformative experience. Critically acclaimed films from the Alive Mind Cinema collection include The Anonymous People, Crazy Wisdom and Web Junkie. More info is available at http://alivemindcinema.com/
