GMO seeds, with their patents and protections of intellectual properties left farmers liable for lawsuits simply for planting their crops.This led Shiva to help create vast global seed banks and libraries to preserve and share varieties among farmers.
Shiva made a difference in other aspects of society through her personal life, when she took her own custody case to the Supreme Court and ultimately changed the law that routinely gave custody to fathers and not mothers.
Directors Camilla and David Becket keep the pace brisk and put the viewer in the middle of many of the mass demonstrations and hearings where the fierce grandmotherly force of Shiva holds court. But it’s not until very late in the film that there is any statement from Monsanto or any of those she criticizes.
Her biggest attack n the Western press comes in a 2014 article in the New Yorker questioning her facts and methods, but the filmmakers follow by hinting at author biases in an earlier TED talk.
Still, Shiva’s heretofore unblemished life of activism in the film is suddenly undermined by charges of being “anti-science.” Perhaps more time should be taken to parse and respond to these criticisms other than assuming Monsanto must be behind them.
But the documentary is more in the category of uplifting a leader while furthering a cause, so maybe those controversies are for someone else to untangle.
“The Seeds of Vendana Shiva” comes with some nice contemporary music laced with sitar from Volker Barber and a hidden treasure during the credits – one of Tina Turner’s final performance, singing a Hindu peace mantra called “Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu.”