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Friday, July 7th, 2023. From 6:00pm-9:30pm ET
Tibet House US – NYC
22 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011
This is an event hosted by Bem-te-vi, Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative, Brooklyn Psychedelic Society and Tibet House US.
Register here.
Schedule
6:00-7:00pm ET – Doors open + Indigenous art market and silent auction
7:00-8:30pm ET – Film screening
8:30-9:30pm ET – Interview of Lara Jacoski by Joseph Mays and Q&A with the public
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”.
Joseph Mays received his MSc in Ethnobotany from the University of Kent researching responses to globalization by the Yanesha of central Peru. Graduating with biology and anthropology degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University, he published a medicinal plant guide for the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve in the Ecuadorian cloud forest. Joseph also holds a certificate in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies from Naropa University, and his conservation work explores how cultural-conditioning influences approaches to biocultural sustainability. His Indigenous rights advocacy stresses the importance of ground-up structures that emphasize local agency and challenge conventional philanthropic models in attempts to support Indigenous autonomy and biodiversity. Joseph is Program Director of Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative (IRI), where he partners with Indigenous community organizations throughout the Americas to support Chacruna’s mission of increasing cultural reciprocity in the psychedelic space, raising unconditional funding and engaging with Indigenous and local stakeholders on their own terms.
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