Discovering what it means to truly be human, even when all of humanity is stripped away, can be an emotional journey for anyone. But award-winning documentarian and short filmmaker, Jessica Oreck, is powerfully embracing that expedition in her new historical drama, ‘One Man Dies A Million Times.’

The writer-director-producer-editor’s narrative debut, which explores genetic diversity, growth and decay, love and war, and hunger of all kinds, is set to have its world premiere at SXSW next month. ‘One Man Dies A Million Times’ is set to screen in Austin, Texas on Saturday, March 9 at Alamo Ritz 2 at 2pm CT; on Monday, March 11 at Alamo Lamar D at 3pm CT; and Friday, March 15 at Alamo Ritz 2 at 4:30pm CT.

Part documentary, part legend and part oral history, ‘One Man Dies a Million Times’ is the true story of one of the world’s most important seed banks. The movie also focuses on the heroism of the botanists who worked there throughout the Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944), and how their sacrifice continues to shape humanity’s future.

Alyssa Lozovskaya stars in the film, which was shot on location in St. Petersburg at the actual N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources. The drama, which is in Russian, is narrated in the words of actual survivors from the Siege, but it isn’t a reenactment. The narrative has been transplanted from 1940’s Leningrad to a speculative, disturbingly near-future St. Petersburg. The crucial role seed banks play in the modern world is potentially even more critical than it was 85 years ago. The movie is an intricate hybrid of speculation and history, allegory and truth, and past and possible future.

‘One Man Dies a Million Times’ is framed in black-and-white by Oreck’s frequent collaborator, Director of Photography, Sean Price Williams. In addition to Lozovskaya, the film also stars Maksim Blinov, Konstantin Malishev, Alina Artomova and Vladimir Koshevoy.

For more information on ‘One Man Dies a Million Times,’ visit is official website, as well as Oreck’s Twitter and Instagram pages, and the Facebook page for the filmmaker’s production company, Myriapod Productions.