‘A Photographic Memory’ Acquired By Zeitgeist Films And Kino Lorber

EXCLUSIVE: Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber have acquired North American rights to the award-winning documentary A Photographic Memory, the directorial debut of Rachel Elizabeth Seed. Zeitgeist plans an early summer theatrical release for the film, winner of the Truer Than Fiction Award at last month’s Film Independent Spirit Awards.

A Photographic Memory tells the moving and evocative story of the filmmaker’s attempt to get to know her late mother, Sheila Turner Seed, a pioneering journalist, photographer, and filmmaker who died suddenly when her daughter Rachel was just 18 months old.

“Uncovering the vast archive Turner Seed produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Cecil Beaton, Lisette Model, and Gordon Parks, among others, Rachel attempts to build a posthumous relationship with her mother through her interviews, photographs, journals, films, and the stories of those who remember her,” notes a synopsis. “The result is an unlikely mother-daughter conversation that evades time and space, exploring universal themes of memory, loss, and legacy.”

The synopsis continues, “Featured in the film is Sheila’s most important work – a series of audiovisual films on the great 20th-century photographers, called Images of Man, which was the first series of its kind to pair a photographer’s philosophies with their pictures. Co-produced by Cornell Capa’s Fund for Concerned Photographers (now the International Center of Photography) and Scholastic, it is through these never-before-heard raw interviews that Rachel hears her mother’s voice for the first time since she was a baby. Now a filmmaker, photographer, and writer herself, Rachel draws parallels between her mother’s path and her own, using the extraordinary archival material not just as an inheritance but as an illuminating collaboration between two generations of visual storytellers.”

In an episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, Seed told co-host John Ridley about her urge to make a film about her mother. “She died of a brain aneurysm when I was a baby – when I was a year and a half old. Of course, at that age you don’t have memories yet, or at least you don’t think you do,” Seed explained. “Really, growing up I just think I took for granted that she wasn’t there. When you’re a kid, your environment is just your environment and you don’t really question it that much until you’re older and you’re like, ‘Wait, I’m not like everybody else. This is different. Why?’”

Seed continued, “It really wasn’t until I got to an age where I started to look back that I was like, ‘I need to know her.’ It was just this overwhelming feeling. ‘I can’t do anything else with my life until I’ve gone to the ends of the Earth to find out who she was.”

Ridley said of A Photographic Memory, “It’s beyond a film. It’s an incredible visual, audio collage.”

The acquisition deal for A Photographic Memory was negotiated by Zeitgeist Co-Presidents Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman and filmmaker Rachel Elizabeth Seed. Russo and Gerstman noted they are “thrilled to discover this unknown story of an important artist and look forward to bringing this incredibly moving journey of director Rachel Elizabeth Seed as she comes to know the mother she never knew to both theaters and festivals in the coming months.”

In a statement, Seed said, “Ever since I was a kid, I have cherished the movie theater experience — from the smell of popcorn to the shared gasps, giggles and tears — and I believe films seen together in person unite and move us exponentially. We are happy to partner with Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist for their unwavering commitment to championing independent voices and their deep appreciation for cinema as art. Their legacy of distributing bold, thought-provoking storytelling aligns perfectly with A Photographic Memory, and I can’t wait to continue sharing this film with audiences in theaters across the country and beyond.”

A Photographic Memory is a Capariva Films, Bow & Arrow Entertainment, Real Lava, Chicken & Egg Films, and Hazel Pictures Production. The film is executive produced by Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson, Dick Johnson is Dead), Maida Lynn, Hinda Gilbert, Robina Riccitiello, Corie Adjmi, Betsy Sherman, Jonathan Logan, Dan Logan, and Charlie Taberle; produced by Sigrid Dyekjær (Apolonia Apolonia, The Territory, The Cave), Matt Perniciaro, Michael Sherman of Bow & Arrow Entertainment (The Truffle Hunters, Skate Kitchen), Rachel Elizabeth Seed, Beth Levison (Grand Theft Hamlet, The Martha Mitchell Effect), and Danielle Varga.

The documentary is edited and co-written by Christopher Stoudt; edited by Eileen Meyer, Tyler Hubby, and Will Garafolo; and with original score by Mary Lattimore and cinematography by Joseph Michael Lopez, Rachel Elizabeth Seed and Drew Gardner.

Founded in 1988, Zeitgeist has distributed early films by such notable directors as Todd Haynes, Christopher Nolan, Francois Ozon, Olivier Assayas, Laura Poitras, Atom Egoyan and the Quay Brothers. “Their catalog includes films from the world’s most outstanding filmmakers including Margerethe Von Trotta, Ken Loach, Guy Maddin, Derek Jarman, Peter Greenaway, Yvonne Rainer, Andrei Zyvagintsev, Astra Taylor and Raoul Peck.”

In 2017, Zeitgeist entered into a multi-year strategic alliance with film distributor Kino Lorber. The companies have combined forces on Alex Dean’s Bombshell, the Hedy Lamarr Story; Blerta Basholli’s Hive; Daniel Raim’s Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, the “final” Ken Loach feature The Old Oak, and most recently Bruce David Klein’s Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.

Kino Lorber is coming off an Oscar nomination for Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, directed by Johan Grimonprez, and an Oscar nomination last year for Four Daughters, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. Recently KL titles include the award-winning documentary Every Little Thing, directed by Sally Aitken and produced by Bettina Dalton, and Oh, Canada, directed by Paul Schrader.