The Shipibo-Konibo people of Peruvian Amazon decorate their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and body art with complex geometric patterns called kené. These patterns also have corresponding songs, called icaros, which are integral to the Shipibo way of life. This documentary explores these unique art forms, and one Shipibo family's efforts to safeguard the tradition.
Filmed in the jungles of Peru, shaman Don Jose Campos introduces the practices and benefits of Ayahuasca, the psychoactive plant brew that has been used for healing and visionary journeys by Amazonian shamans for at least a thousand years.
The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Documentary about the most popular music of the Andes -- Huayno music -- and explores the lives of three Huayno musicians in a contemporary Peru torn between the military and the Shining Path guerrillas.
The tombs of the grand lords of Moche civilization - one of Peru's most important pre-Hispanic civilizations -- are in constant danger from grave robbers, but archeologist Walter Alva has managed to find some priceless treasures and recreate the lives of this ancient people of northern Peru.
Valdivia 1960, El Gran Terremoto
This documentary examines ayahuasca shamanism near Iquitos (a metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon), and the tourism it has attracted. The filmmakers talk with two ayahuasqueros, Percy Garcia and Ron Wheelock, as well as ayuahuasca tourists and local people connected with the ayahuasca industry.
In the central Peruvian Amazon, a young indigenous man from the Nomatsigenga Community of Boca Kiatari, shares his urgent message with the world. In a moving short film, the community comes together to preserve their natural environment, aware of the growing challenges of climate change and global warming.
Atar
The painter Alfredo Romero locks himself in his studio-apartment in the Estación de Francia neighborhood in Mollet del Vallès (Barcelona) to create the final painting of his series Paisajes interiores (Inner Landscapes). The director of this film does the same, but to create his own work about the painter's creative process. Premiered at Documenta Madrid in 2009.
Documentary showing a couple of photographers driving for 35 days, leaving Brazil for Ushuaia.
Shipibo healer Ricardo Amaringo describes how he prepares, teaches, and shares the plant medicine ayahuasca. Olivia and Julian Arévalo sing examples of icaros (healing songs) in the Shipibo language.
A portrait of Peruvian curandero Agustin Rivas-Vazques, revealed primarily through stationary-camera interviews.
American tourists at SpiritQuest Sanctuary, a medicine lodge in Peru, share their thoughts about the traditional medicine ayahuasca, and their motivations for drinking it. Don Howard Lawler, founder of SpiritQuest, describes ayahuasca and its beneficial effects, as do the filmmakers themselves.
This documentary delves deeper into the racism issue addressing many discriminatory practices in Peru, researching their origins and their hurtful consequences.
Dramatic testimony of Gregorio Condori Mamani, who works as a porter in Cusco, Peru. Despite the huge effort they make everyday for a few coins, porters fall and find death in the streets.
An experimental documentary short about the terrorism in Peru in 1986. Using archive footage, the director deconstructs the massacre in a successive historical actions choreography and an atmospheric sound mix alternating the imminence of both the massacre and the oblivion.
Peru is a country of many contrasts. From the cold waters of the Coast over the 6000 m high Andes to the unique biodiversity of the Amazon Jungle. Peru isn't only Machu Picchu. It's much more.
Desperate to recover from his depression, Dave travels from his home in British Columbia, Canada to Peru in order to experience the healing effects of the sacred medicine ayahuasca. After Dave spends some time in the country, a Shipibo healer begins to teach him how to work with the medicine more deeply.
Respira