The “Mama’s Sundry” documentary opens with Bertram Williams Jr. standing ankle-deep in crops.

Williams is an actor and community advocate, and in the opening for his 15-minute film, he’s in a garden in the front yard of a home in South Memphis. Watermelons, tomatoes, and peppers — still attached to the vine — clasp around his feet.

”There are a lot of acres in residential contexts that could be utilized by growth space,” he says.

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In partnership with his wife, singer Talibah Safiya, the couple started the initiative to grow produce in areas categorized as food deserts or “communities that have poor access to healthy and affordable foods.”

“Mama Sundry’s mission is to make wellness accessible,” Williams said, in an interview with The Daily Memphian. “This film is our clarion call to folks to understand that wellness is right outside of their front door and to go get it.”

The film next screens in Memphis on Thursday, Sept. 12, at Crosstown Theater. A panel will follow.

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Brody Kuhar and Joshua Cannon’s film on Mama’s Sundry has won awards at several film festivals, including, most recently, the Best Black Lens Short Film at the 2024 Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Mama’s Sundry team also brings organic produce to families’ homes. Through teaching children how to garden, Williams seeks to inspire youths to discover their philanthropic gifts and engage with something larger than themselves.

”We really just want people to walk away with the confidence to know that it’s their birthright to be able to benefit from the medicine that comes from the land,” Safiya said. “It’s OK to get started when you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll keep learning along the way. There is so much benefit to learning the first step of being able to feed yourself.”

Kuhar said the reception of the film, especially in cities that struggle with similar food inequalities, has been profound.

”(We’re) reaching beyond just the facts and the numbers, but seeing the experience, seeing the reactions to what Bertram, Talibah and everybody on the Mama’s Sundry team is doing,” Kuhar said. 

The filmmakers’ year-long filming process was to capture the everyday interactions between Williams and the neighborhood kids, as well as his other community bonds.

”Being able to be with that kid trying a tomato for the first time, like a fresh tomato out of the ground, and (capturing) the impression on his face, that’s kind of the beauty of what documentary filmmaking is,” Cannon said. 

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The film has been screened as far away as Colorado.

”It was just really moving to see that this thing has legs in communities that have nothing to do in Memphis,” Kuhar said. 

“After the screening in Birmingham, I had a conversation with someone about a farm that they have there in the middle of the city,” Cannon said. “In Colorado, I had a conversation with a couple who started a neighborhood garden and would knock on doors and bring fresh produce to their neighbors. It is really cool to see the conversation and the ongoing practice that grows out of people having seen the film.”

“I think it’s something that everybody can get something out of. It’s deeper than just a conversation about gardening. It’s a conversation about feeding people, urban planning and the future of food,” Kuhar said. 

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The film will screen at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, at Crosstown Theater. Tickets are $5.

Following the screening, Cannon and Kuhar will be joined by Knowledge Quest CEO Marlon Foster, AgLaunch President Pete Nelson, Williams and Safiya for a panel, moderated by Tom Shadyac, founder of Memphis Rox in Soulsville and the writer-director of films“Bruce Almighty” and “The Nutty Professor.”