ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

In the American South, Black forest landowners fight to maintain their family legacy and create sustainable forests for generations to come.

LONG SYNOPSIS

Sustainability is a multi-generational narrative seen and felt most acutely through family stories. While all family forest owners face trials and travails, the most dramatic stories unfolding today are amongst Black family foresters in the South. They face many challenges: lack of credit and capital, barriers to accessing forestry services, and threats to their land ownership from predatory developers using legal loopholes.

This cinema vérité style documentary tells the moving story of two Black family forest owners in North Carolina. It tracks their triumphs and struggles historically and in the present day. The Jefferies sisters, Nikki and Natalie, struggle with their estranged father, Sidney, to clear the overgrown thicket of underbrush on their property. Meanwhile, the Williams family cultivates an award-winning tree farm at their aptly named Fourtee Acres.

Our families work with the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Project (SFLR). This network passionately champions Black forest landowners and promotes sustainable forestry. Some of their advocates are skilled lawyers trained in inheritance issues and property law. Others are practicing foresters who guide families through the complexities of sustainable harvesting, conservation, and silviculture.

Return visits over the span of North Carolina’s four seasons track the life cycle of the forests — birth, life, death, rebirth — and act as a metaphor for our protagonists’ progress and their family lives. Healthy families equals healthy forests.

Our family foresters strive for an ecologically and economically sound future through sustainable forestry. Via intimate family portraits, we tell an inspiring story of climate action, advocate for economic and social justice, and make a compelling case for forests to be forests for generations to come.

Director Jennifer MacArthur

Producer Rupert Maconick

Executive Producers Geeta Gandbhir, Wendell Hanes, Jennifer MacArthur, Michelle Travinski, Lucia Diaz Sas, Kimberly Doebereiner, Tonia Elrod, Grace Wade

Co-Producers Jessica Sarah Flaum, Shani Lewis, Nadine Natour

Associate Producers Ben Bortner, Mo Macsai-Goren, Dominique Francisco, Crystal Harrell, Jameeda Rucker, Anna Saalfeld

Editor Hannah Choe

Director of Photography Rafael Roy

Music Wendell Hanes

FESTIVALS
2024: Full Frame (World Premiere), Hot Docs

AVAILABLE TERRITORIES
The World

EXHIBITION FORMATS
DCP, Digital Download