BPS x Tibet House Presents: Eskawata Kayawai (The Spirit of Transformation)

Experience the forest and its mystery through this unreleased documentary and 6 year-long project in partnership with Brooklyn Psychedelic Society and the Tibetan House.

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 their cultural practice  of nixi pae (ayahuasca).

The film’s director Lara Jacoski,  will be sharing stories from the six year’s of the film’s production,  diving into backstage insights and some reflections of the guardians of  the forest and sacred medicines. 

Together with Joseph Mays, the Program Director of Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative (IRI), conducting collaborative research and build connections with Indigenous communities throughout the Americas.

This is a rare opportunity to watch the film in an intimate setting  (there are limited seats), as the film is yet to be released and is  currently circulating in film festivals around the world.

The doors open at 6pm and there will be an indigenous art market and a silent auction, which will help fund the director’s next project. The screening will begin at 7pm sharp, and there will be a Q&A at the film’s conclusion, along with the market.

Eskawata Kayawai is a message of hope, an example for the world, a powerful return home  illustrating the possibility of rescuing ancestral values and living in  harmony with ourselves and the planet. It is a valuable lesson in our  current need for cultural preservation and sustainability, and  re-connecting to our true nature.

Synopsis: In the heart of the Amazon  Rainforest, the self-claimed Huni Kuin (meaning true people) are  experiencing a 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 are through communing with  their sacred medicine nixi pae (ayahuasca) within their community. Their  identity has since returned after more than the 20 years of prayers and  cultural strengthening undertaken by the spiritual leader Ninawá Pai  da Mata and his village Novo Futuro, and the communities along the  Humaitá River. Through this film, we are guided by the villagers through  the enchanting cacophony of the forest, understanding the significance  of culture and identity to the Huni Kuin people.

Speakers - Lara Jacoski is a documentarist, co-director of Bem-te-vi Produções together  with Patrick Belem, a Brazilian independent film production company  making collaborations across the 5 continents (AF/AS/EU/NA/LATAM). Lara  has deepened her work in ethnographic projects focused to register  culture refering 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".

Speakers - Joseph Mays is an Ethnobotanist, a researcher and a writer. He is the program director of Chacruna’s Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative where  he conducts research and builds connections with small Indigenous  communities throughout the Americas to support Chacruna’s mission of  increasing cultural reciprocity in the psychedelic space.