'Seeds' delivers a dose of catharsis for the current moment
DYLAN FREEMAN-GRIST
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Sometimes the world has a way of inducing a steady stream of internal rage. This past week - for reasons I probably don't need to delve too deeply into - are certainly one of those times. Questions swirling: why is my internet bill over $100 in downtown Toronto? Why is everything always headed backwards? Why do millions of people trust a fascist, multi-bankrupt, multi-failed enterprise, and multi-convicted felon to lower their gas bill and fix the economy? In this haze I walked into Seeds, which wrapped up its painfully short run at the Carlton Cinema this weekend, seeking an escape. I left with a dose of good medicine instead.
Ziggy - played by a deeply funny Kaniehtiio Horn who also wrote and directed the film - is a perfectly relatable thirty-something Torontonian trying to move on from her emotionally vacant ex-boyfriend while carving out a living. We are introduced to her much the same as we are introduced to many on screen folks in 2024: a series of short-cut, social media videos she has curated for her audience. We learn that she has two main hustles. She is a fledgling lifestyle and history influencer known for sharing gardening tips alongside spooky stories from her Mohawk ancestry. She is also a bike courier for an unnamed food delivery service; the grind which is presumably doing the heavy lifting to keep the lights on in her studio apartment atop a Pizza Pizza.
That all changes when she signs her first major brand partnership with Nature's Oath - a commercial gardening conglomerate impressed with her content and interested in investing in her. We aren't privy to details but Ziggy's wide-eyes when she looks down at the partnership contract while sitting in the company’s boardroom tells us that we are joining her story just as life is about to change.
Ziggy - is not above selling-out, in fact she's been working towards doing just that for awhile. Though the degree to which she's sold her soul is not immediately apparent to her. We come to learn that Nature’s Oath is a direct stand-in for IRL agrochemical companies like Monsanto who's decades-long efforts to utilize patented, genetically modified seeds to establish a global monopoly on food production, consistently ranks them as one of the most evil companies in the world even long after they were acquired in 2018.
When Ziggy s asked to come back to her rez for a bit to watch her aunt's house so she can enjoy a vacation, the consequences of the transaction begin to trickle in. First through the disapprovals of her more in-the-know cousin - played by Dallas Goldtooth - who wallops out devastating chirps about her getting in bed with the devil. Finally, they reach an apex when a goon - played to chaotic evil eminence by Patrick Garrow - is hired by her newly minted “brand partner” to begin terrorizing her through a series of bizarre and incoherent home invasions.
Interwoven with Ziggy's descendance from a long-line of proud Mohawk farmers is her family's highly valued collection of seeds that have been passed down through the generations. Eventually she puts together the pieces and realizes that Nature’s Oath’s interest in her content extends only so far as they could track her to her family's secluded, off-the-grid home on rez, where they could then steal or destroy her family's prized seeds.
Even if you are aware of the exact and bizzare tactics that the real life companies that inspired Nature's Oath take to choke off competition this specific approach seems absurdly overhanded, but that is part of the joke. Why would a global conglomerate care about an isolated Mohawk family's small ancestral seed stash? Because shareholders dictate squeezing the life out of every single possible stem they perceive as competition - so of course they do.
Ziggy and the overall film's quick acceptance of this high level premise may feel off - a possible plot point made more potent by the film's blistering pace as it rockets through its less-than-90 minute run time. Ziggy finds herself in the middle of a truly absurd situation - and as the goon’s tactics and efforts to reach her family's seed stash begin to reach increasingly desperate and bizzare levels of violence we can't help but laugh and see the point of her easy resolve.
Is it so alien that we live in a world where millions of people seem to only get out of bed each day and orient themselves around greed and greed alone? At this point the length random strangers are willing to go to harm others for whatever reason is no longer something we should waste any time being surprised by.
I think what's special about Seeds, and what makes the case that it deserves a larger following in this current era is that it embraces our world's now default nihilism by telling a darkly humorous story of the power possible when an ordinary individual opts to fight back. As Ziggy suddenly finds herself the last line of defense against an arbitrary act of systemic violence she responds by rolling her sleeves up, skipping over the niceties and negotiation, channeling the inherited rage of her ancestors, to deliver a counter punch to the jaw.
While not all of us have inherited the spiritual knowledge and learnings from warrior ancestors who would dissect and eat the hearts of their felled enemies (but only the one's they considered cowards), an ounce of her spirit will arm us well as we barrel towards yet more unprecedented times.
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Sadly Seeds is currently unavailable to watch in Toronto or online as it wrapped up a limited run at Carlton this weekend. We'll re-up this piece when it finds a home on streaming or at another local theatre in the future.