Seed Time: WILD RELATIVES (2018)

Details:

Seed Time: WILD RELATIVES (2018)

RSVP


WILD RELATIVES (Jumana Manna, 2018, 65 min, DCP, Germany/Lebanon/Norway, in English/Arabic/Norwegian with English subtitles)

In her 2018 documentary WILD RELATIVES, Palestinian artist Jumana Manna explores the political and socio-economic factors that influence the lifecycle of plants. The film follows the circulation of seeds from Aleppo, Syria to a seed bank in the Arctic, and back to the ground in Lebanon, mapping networks of human and plant resilience in the face of displacement, climate change, agricultural change, and war. Loosely essayistic, the film weaves compassionate small stories of seed workers, refugees, and farmers as they safeguard endangered seeds through traditional and innovative agricultural methods alike. Filming in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Manna’s agile lens comes alive in moments of joy and connection between women workers, whose laborious efforts of planting and harvesting to preserve the collection of Syrian seeds (the first ever withdrawn from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway) provide models for thinking about environmental adaptation and the future of international agriculture. 

WILD RELATIVES has screened widely, winning the New Vision Award from CPH Dox, and will be presented as the final screening in Block Cinema’s SEED TIME series. 

Presented with an introduction by Domietta Torlasco (Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature) as part of the "Ecologies of Resistance" workshop, convened by Torlasco and students from Weinberg and the School of Communication.

This event is part of the SEED TIME film series, a selection of films screening in Winter and Spring quarter 2024.

FREE & OPEN TO ALL

WILD RELATIVES - Trailer from KLE on Vimeo.

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu