Sacred Encounters
Sacred Encounters is a documentary series follows meetings between Amazonian indigenous peoples and people from other ancient cultures across the world, looking at the exchanges of art and knowledge which emerge.
Documentary series (in progress)
4 episodes x 52’
Synopsis
This documentary series follows meetings between Amazonian indigenous peoples and people from other ancient cultures across the world, looking at the exchanges of art and knowledge which emerge. The common point in all the encounters are the tribes of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, who have managed to preserve their culture and traditions despite the arrival of settlers and other threats. The series shows two-way exchanges in which native tribes from Canada, Finland, Africa and Mongolia spend time with the Amazonian communities first in the jungle and then back in their own ancestral lands. The meetings are opportunities to share different experiences and different methods of coexisting with the environment and also to witness at first hand rare and millenarial rituals and customs. At a more superficial level, these are also encounters filled with joy and celebration: images of the pleasure of unexpected encouters which today’s world makes possible. Through the series we meet the leaders at the fore of these meetings in which oral traditions are renewed, sacred sites are recognized and medicinal plants are exchanged. We discover the mystery and power which are latent in such encounters and we see how humans can live in greater harmony with nature.
Treatment
Each chapter centres on one of the leaders of the visiting population, allowing us to discover, through his or her eyes, the surprises and novelties which arise in such a different and far-away context. Each will be divided into two equal parts, chronicling the events during the respective leg of the visit. For example, in one chapter, we might see first the experiences of African indigenous peoples in the Amazon jungle and then those witnessed by Amazonian visitors to the African desert. Among the issues which will be address are the role of ancestral medicines and sacred plants, the importance of preserving ancestral languages, education, the understanding of time and the use ecological calendars, and the need for laws granting the communities greater independence.
Project developed by 4direcciones, The GAIA Foundation and African Biodiversity Network.