BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: LESSONS OF HOPE - SCAD Savannah Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Big Sky Documentary Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Cleveland International Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Santa Fe International Film Festival
Institutional Food Reform • Criminal Justice Reform • Agriculture • Organic Gardening • Social Justice
Date of Completion: 2023 | Run Time: 26 minutes | Language: English | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director/Producer/Editor: Maximilian Armstrong | Director of Photography: Joseph Kosty | Original Music: Ben Sollee
Filmed over the course of two years, SEEDS OF CHANGE chronicles the intersecting stories of lifelong farmer, Mark McBrine, and several incarcerated men as they grow their own food on a five-acre prison garden unlike any other. In a place where life is routinely defined by shame and despair, good food can be a gateway to meaning, wellness and dignity. This is a story about the power of using organic agriculture as a means to reform our food systems and change the course of people's lives.
Nick Callanan | Festival Director, Maine Outdoor Film Festival
"A complex piece of narrative building, such an elevated work."
Janet Mills | Governor, Maine
"I am Proud of this Work...Seeds of Change is fundamentally a story of hope."
AWARDS
Best Documentary Short: Lessons of Hope | SCAD Savannah Film Festival
Best Maine Film | Maine Outdoor Film Festival
Best Short Feature | Maine Outdoor Film Festival
Audience Choice Award: Best Documentary Short | Woods Hole Film Festival
Audience Choice Award: Best Documentary Short | Anchorage International Film Festival
Audience Choice Award: Best Documentary Short | Arlington International Film Festival
Human Rights Award | Mystic Film Festival
Tom and Ginny Knoll Award: In Celebration of Acts of Kindness | Cleveland International Film Festival
FESTIVALS
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
AM Docs
Santa Fe International Film Festival
NH Docs
Devour! The Food Film Fest
North Dakota Human Rights Festival
Calgary Justice Film Festival
Eugene Environmental Film Festival
Green Film Festival of San Francisco
Monadnock International Film Festival
DocuWest Documentary Film Festival
Boston Film Festival
Breckenridge Film Festival
Martha's Vinyard Film Festival
Durango Independent Film Festival
NorthWestFest
Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival