Seeds + Seeds: Bai & Yi
The first episode examines the rapid cultural transformations occurring within Yunnan's ethnic Bai and Yi communities where generations of farmers weigh the benefits of tradition against modern agronomics.
Seeds and Seeds is an expansive eight-part ethnographic docuseries set amidst Yunnan’s dramatic natural landscapes and diverse cultural geography. The films follow the director’s journey from the frenetic cities of modern China to the peripheries of Yunnan as she explores the symbiotic relationship between seeds, social harmony, and cultural preservation.
The first episode opens on the outskirts of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province with a population of nearly 7 million, where younger generations of ethnic Bai and Yi farmers are feeling the financial pressures of social mobility. Conflict between tradition and modernity lies at the core of this film, prodding the audience to question the meaning(s) of progress and evolution.
Seeds and Seeds is layered with sub-narratives that illuminate the evolving relationships between humans and land, food and water, place and identity, ritual and adaptation in Yunnan’s unique ecosystems and ethnographic regions. Rongjie exposes us not only to a mosaic of cultures, but to the various meanings of home and the circumstances that dictate the need to either preserve or reform tradition.
Shandong-born painter, visual artist, and videographer who studied oil painting and copperplate engraving at Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. She lives in an ancient stone home in the mountains of southwest China.
