In Seeds, actor-turned-filmmaker Kaniehtiio Horn captures a sacred topic with humour | Canada Voices

For the Kanienʼkehà:ka or Mohawk nation, seeds are sacred. Corn, beans, and squash in particular – known as the Three Sisters or Kiohehkwen – are life-sustaining gifts that were given to the Haudenosaunee people by the daughter of Sky Woman, a central figure in the story of the genesis of the Haudenosaunee whose fall from sky down to endless sea precipitated the creation of Turtle Island.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Kaniehtiio Horn’s debut feature, aptly titled Seeds, had its world premiere earlier this fall at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a fiery testament to the ancestral responsibility, passed down through generations of Kanien’kehà:ka people, to steward and protect these sacred plants.

Hailing from Ottawa and Kahnawá:ke Mohawk Territory located just south of Quebec’s St. Lawrence River, Horn has spent more than 20 years acting in various screen roles from Netflix’s Hemlock Grove and the CW’s Supernatural to recent work on FX’s celebrated series Rez Dogs; with Seeds, the multihyphenate works triple duty, directing, writing, as well as starring as Ziggy, an up-and-coming influencer living in Toronto who is asked to return to the reservation where she was raised to house sit for her aunt. Tough and determined, but also slightly naive and eager to earn a healthy commission, Ziggy agrees to partner with a seed and fertilizer corporate giant ahead of her trip home, which, unbeknownst to the young Mohawk woman, is working to steal and exploit her own community’s seed stores by any means necessary.

Paying homage to movies from the 1990s such as Home Alone and the classic Graham Greene thriller, Clearcut, Seeds is equal parts violent and comedic, blending the macabre and humorous with an enjoyable ease (Horn is quick to cite Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead as one of her all-time favourite movies).

Sitting down with the director ahead of the film’s theatrical release, The Globe and Mail spoke with Horn about taking the reins on her own project, working collaboratively, and honouring her people’s history and connection to the land.

With you writing, directing, and starring, this seems like a very personal project; how did Seeds begin for you?

Seeds began as, after working as an actor for 20 years and mostly in recurring or guest starring roles, I was kind of tired of waiting around for opportunities. A few friends of mine had made their own vehicles that opened a lot of doors for them, which spurred me to do the same for myself.

I also wanted to do something fun and make something with people that I love and have worked with before. Having the chance to set the tone on set, as well, was something that I wanted to take a stab at – I’ve worked on over 80 different projects so far in my career and, when the tone is off, it sucks for everybody working. I wanted to put my money where my mouth is and try to lead by example.

In terms of the story, I was thinking about the most precious thing to Indigenous people: our connection to the land, and for my people specifically, it’s our connection to what we call The Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash seeds.

I love the tone of the film, it feels very fresh. Can you talk a bit about blending horror, genre, and living Indigenous histories as you do here?

I always wanted the film to be funny – that was important to me because Indigenous people are really, really funny. People are starting to get that now with [the FX series] Rez Dogs, but people didn’t know that before – everyone thinks we are so serious. We laugh a lot, we joke a lot, so the comedy aspect of the film was important; it would have felt forced for me to do just a straight up drama. It wouldn’t have felt like me. That said, while I wanted people to have fun, I also wanted them to think about the histories present in the film.

As far as genre, as an actress, I love working with FX especially – it becomes a cool opportunity to see how creative people can get. A lot of my career thus far has been working in genre projects and I’ve always loved how loyal the fans are. In a way, I felt safer coming out as a filmmaker in that world.

I’m wondering if you can speak to the use of the Mohawk language in the film and how you and the cast worked with language together?

The language was very important to me because my mom is a first-language speaker. I’m not – I understand it, but I answer in English. I wanted to showcase the realities of how we talk, how we use language, how we have conversations with some people one way and certain people in another, depending on whether or not people are beginner or intermediate speakers. It is a big part of our day-to-day, especially in the past 30 years as there’s been a resurgence specifically of my people’s language.

It also made the casting a very particular process; we had to find people who not only fit the characters, but also speak the language. My cousin, Akwiratékha Martin, is a linguist who is working to preserve the language, so he was my translator on the film who worked with all of the actors, including myself, to go over everything and learn together.

There are these really lovely past-present-future scenes of Indigenous life in Seeds that are referred to by one of your characters as “genetic memories.” Can you talk a bit about your intention with those scenes?

Originally I wanted to convey those scenes across a variety of time periods in order to illustrate that it’s been generations upon generations upon generations of us who have been on this land. Indigenous people – at least in my family – talk about genetic memory a lot, especially in terms of intergenerational trauma. So those scenes were my way of illustrating the long history of our connection to where we’re from. When I leave my rez or the area where my people dwell, I recognize that I’m not home. You feel it. When I’m home, on my people’s lands, there’s this connection that is hard to explain. It was important to me to convey that we have had that feeling for thousands of years.

This interview has been edited and condensed.