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Sunday, July 23rd, 2023. From 5:00pm-9:00pm PST
Portal Community Center
3051 Adeline St,
Berkeley, CA 94703
This is an event hosted by Bem-te-vi, Chacruna Institute, San Francisco Psychedelic Society and Portal Community.
Register here.
Only 50 seats
Fee: U$30
Door: U$35
$100 supporter ticket: Support our next projects “Living Libraries” filming elders from many indigenous cultures in Brazil and get front seats.
Schedule
5-5:30pm PST – Doors open by Daniele Negrin and Indigenous Art Market
5:30-7pm PST – Film screening
7-8pm PST – Interview of Lara Jacoski by Bia Labate and Q&A with the public
8-9pm PST – Closing
Come to experience the immersion in the forest and its mystery with the non released documentary and 6 years work. Eskawata Kayawai – The spirit of Transformation tells the story of the cultural and spiritual renaissance of the Huni Kuin people from the Brazilian Amazon forest through ayahuasca. Together with Lara Jacoski, the director of the film, that will be sharing the backstage and some reflections of the guardians of the medicine. With moderation of Bia Labate, who is the Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute. Enjoy this opportunity to watch the film in a more intimate environment, while the film is still private as it’s taking its time to be subscribed to festivals before its release at the end of the next year. Patrick Belem will be showing some parts of the Huni Kuin film, some photographs, sharing his experiences within the Amazon forest and with the Huni Kuin culture, from his first contact to the three times he has been to several villages deep into the forest, his learning process and how it affected his personal life and film itself. If lucky we will have the presence of Ninawá Pai da Mata, a Huni Kuin leader and medicine man that is the main character of the film and a medicine music man, sharing his views and music. There will be Huni Kuin jewelry, rapé and artifacts available for selling, which will be directly funding the project. Also we will be collecting donations to fund the rest of the project which is being made with collective fundraising.
Learn more about this project here.
Film Synopsis
In the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, the self-claimed Huni Kuin (meaning true people) are experiencing the renaissance of their culture after decades of slavery and being forbidden to live their identity. It was only in the year 2000 they started to remember who they really were by taking their sacred medicine ayahuasca in community. Their identity has returned after 20+ years of prayers and cultural strengthening undertaken by the spiritual leader Ninawá Pai da Mata and his village. In this feature film, we are taken by the villagers to the cacophony and the enchantments of the forest medicines sharing their culture and importance of identity of native people.
Main Credits
Director : Lara Jacoski and Patrick Belem
D.O.P : Lara Jacoski and Patrick Belem
In association with: Ninawá Pai da Mata and Txai Vinícius Yube Ika Ni Bai
Co-Producer : Joakim Vocke Hauge (Hinterland)
Executive producer: Oona Chaplin (Double Rainbow Productions), Torstein Grude (Piraya), Alex Moreno (Cine-Creative Media)
Co-executive producers: Lucía Alonso, Bodhi Kaya, Coco Amos and Kristen Nicole
Sound: Origens Sound Farm – Andreia Freire
Main cast: Ninawá Pai Da Mata, Ikamuru Huni Kuin, Yube Dua Bake, Txana Tuwe, Dua Buse Dua Bake / Huni Kuin indigenous peopleThis work received grants from the Brazilian Show Me The Fund (powered by Brazilian Content, Cinema do Brasil, Projeto Paradiso) plus a 2 years support of international collective funding.
Speakers
Lara Jacoski is co-director of Bem-te-vi Produções together with Patrick Belem, a Brazilian independent film production company that has produced content across the 5 continents (AF/AS/EU/NA/LATAM). Lara has deepened her work in ethnographic projects focused to register culture and alternative ways of living that refer to ancestral knowledge. For the past years she has focused to learn and work with native peoples in Brazil such as Guarani, Yawalapiti, Xavante, Kuikuro, Karajá and Huni Kui which she has recently finished the feature and 6 years project “Eskawata Kayawai” invited for a US premiere at the PS2023 MAPS Conference. Such coexistence with the peoples has changed her life and ways of perceiving reality bringing a whole different level of her work. Her current project is an ongoing series to register traditional people’s knowledge from Brazil called “Living Libraries”.
Dr. Beatriz Caiuby Labate (Bia Labate) is a queer Brazilian anthropologist based in San Francisco. She has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Her main areas of interest are the study of plant medicines, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, religion, and social justice. She is Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and serves as Public Education and Culture Specialist at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). She is also Visiting Scholar at Naropa University’s Center for Psychedelic Studies and Advisor at the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition. Dr. Labate is a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) in Brazil and editor of its site. She is author, co-author, and co-editor of twenty-seven books, two special-edition journals, and several peer-reviewed articles (https://bialabate.net).
Danielle Nova is building a conscious global community that provides education into the responsible and intentional use of psychedelics. Danielle counsels individuals through addiction recovery, microdosing, psychedelic integration and spiritual transformation. The purpose of her work is to assist individuals and communities transcend out of patterns that are no longer serving them so that they can live empowered lives. Danielle is the Founder of Psychedelic Recovery, Executive Director of the San Francisco Psychedelic Society, was on the founding team of Decriminalize Nature Oakland and on the advisory board for Project New Day.
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