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Ayahuasca Diaries
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TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Post-Production
LOGLINE
Ayahuasca Diaries, made with Amazonian tribes and contemporary scientists, is a film about an elixir transforming personal lives and world culture.
SYNOPSIS
This film takes us from the deeply personal impact of ayahuasca to its global impact. It reveals how ayahuasca is used by Amazonian tribes, the on-the-ground protectors of the Amazon who are being annihilated. This film delves into the ways that capitalism impacts tribes and how ayahuasca inspires social activism.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
While I once felt silence is ayahuasca's best protection, the “genie is out of the bottle” and now, “Ayahuasca” is even in your spell check. According to many psychiatrists, ayahuasca is the most efficient and profound way of transforming one’s life. I felt it was necessary to inform psychiatrists, psychologists, governments to understand and respect the brew and its hosts, avoid abuse, and to inspire healing of the vast trauma in this world. With ayahuasca’s globalization, we’ve recently seen Amazonian shamans who have traveled to other countries, carrying their sacred brew and getting arrested for what is considered drug trafficking. Governments do not understand what ayahuasca is and how it can heal and help people; they are unaware of its chemical make-up and the scientific evidence of its value. The right to have dominion over one’s own body, mind and spirit is, and should be, an inalienable right, superseding government intervention. Two decades ago there were very few people who knew about ayahuasca. It had hardly left the Amazon rainforest until the late 1980s. In the 2000s, it was mostly Europeans and Americans finding ayahuasca in the Amazon. Subsequently, by their invitation, Amazonian shamans began traveling the world and ayahuasca use spread and flourished underground. As is the tendency in the modern world, we appropriated and morphed traditions that understood how to delicately work with unknown realms beyond physical matter. As ayahuasca moves farther from traditional ceremonies, its use often becomes less sacred and its users more at risk for lack of wisdom. It is not to be taken recreationally. The gifts of this mysterious brew are beyond comprehension. For its safe use and for its safety, I felt this film was needed. More than just understanding and listening to tribal wisdom about its use, I wanted to inspire sacred reciprocity to the tribes that have shared their gifts. The artistic approach of the film is something I have not seen before. (I am encouraged by several award-winning film producers and editors who know nothing about ayahuasca who have applauded the film’s unique vision and form.) I take you across the threshold into worlds unknown by even the most experienced and informed about ayahuasca. My strategy of offering the audience a deep dive into people’s stories complimented by experiential intervals of tribal ceremonies is exciting, while challenging. ?
KEY CREW
maxi cohen - Director Producer
Maxi Cohen is a filmmaker whose movies have played in theaters, festivals, and on television around the world and have influenced two generations of filmmakers. As a media activist, her film and television work has had significant influence in creating visible social change. As well, she has created several decades-long series of photography and multimedia works. A recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Annenberg and Rockefeller Foundations, and Buckminster Fuller Institute, Maxi's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and other museums.
?As a student/practitioner of ayahuasca for more than thirty years, Maxi speaks and films on the subject. Her film The Holy Give is about the Santo Daime, a syncretic church where ayahuasca is the sacrament used for healing, visioning and communing with he Divine. From Shock to Awe*, which she executive produced, has changed and saved many lives from suicide. Currently streaming, it is about suicidal veterans who recover themselves with ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca Diaries, now in production, is for the curious and well-seasoned, paying homage to tribal shamans in Brazil, Peru. Ecuador and Colombia.
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