The film-makers traveled to Putumayo, south of Colombia to partake in a ritual which at the centre needs the use of a powerful medicinal plant, skillfully attended by a local Taita, or shaman. Absent from this record is any trace of an exploitative psychedelic experience. What you see here is a simple, honest record of people exchanging knowledge in a caring environment. With no music that comes from outside this place, and a lack of explanatory text, this is a film which not only trusts the gentleness of its statement, but also trusts the language of cinema to convey it. Not everything that is, can be seen. Some of the substance of life must also be learned by experience. In this case by an inner experience.
CREDITS
Directed by: Gun Holmström and Juan Recamán
Funded by: AVEK ( Heidi Tikka), Finnish Cultural Foundation, Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, Oscar Öflund Foundation, VISEK.
Filmed in Sibundoy and Puerto Asís, Putumayo, Colombia.
©2013 Gun Holmström & Juan Recamán
Running Time: 29min.
Format: Color HD , Stereo sound.
Dialogue language: Spanish. Subtitles: English.