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Hero image for The Neglected Miracle

The Neglected Miracle

Film (Excerpts) – 1985

For this five year global inquiry into "who owns our seeds", director Barry Barclay canvassed the views of corporates (vying to profit from owning the DNA of major crop seeds), scientists, and farmers in the developing world. Barclay was inspired to make the feature documentary because "it is crazy to own life"; he later argued big business suppressed the film. This excerpt was filmed across Australia, Costa Rica and the Netherlands. NZ Herald critic Peter Calder later called Miracle "chillingly prescient". A 1988 screening helped spur the Wai 262 Treaty claim, for Māori intellectual property rights involving indigenous flora and fauna. 

Epic.
– Botanist David Bellamy describes the documentary, while introducing its screening at the 1985 London Film Festival

Produced by

  • Pacific Films

  • Mansfield Films