In the late 1970s, Marcel fled Catalonia to avoid conscription into the Spanish military. For 30 years he has been living in the tropical forests of Costa Rica, where he hosts ayahuasca ceremonies for young seekers from the West.
01 Feb 1992
The story of the evolution of tropical rain forests, their recent and rapid destruction, and the intense efforts of scientists to understand them even as they disappear. This film gives viewers a better appreciation of the importance of tropical rain forests on a global scale.
26 Feb 2025
A documentary film about one woman's incredible life journey to meet and build a relationship with Ayahuasca. Her name is Tatiana Aya Tupinambá and she chose the path of an Ayahuasca curandera. Travel into the jungle with us near Pucallpa, Peru to meet Tatiana's Ashaninka teacher, Juan Flores. Experience the magical location of Mayantuyacu, where Tatiana's journey of self-discovery and healing blossomed. Mayantuyacu is a world famous healing center and is known for it's incredible unique geothermal river which is the largest boiling river on the planet. Learn about plant 'dietas', see the process of making Ayahuasca, and witness the fascinating practice that is 'Curanderismo', the way of healing in the Amazon rainforest. Understand how the Ayahuasca songs, Icaros, are learned from the plants and connect to force that these vibrational medicines carry.
01 Jan 2010
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.
01 Jan 2009
In these interviews, Dennis McKenna, Alex Grey, Rick Strassman, and other champions of psychedelics share their views on the value of psychedelic medicine, and its neglect in Western society.
12 Jun 2009
Hamilton Souther is the founder of Blue Morpho Tours, a company that caters to ayahuasca tourists in the Peruvian Amazon. Souther talks about the events that led him to Amazonian shamanism. Five first-time ayahuasca drinkers on a nine-day retreat with Blue Morpho relate their experiences.
21 Sep 2008
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.
19 Dec 2010
Sachamama is a retreat lodge in Peruvian Amazonia. There, Francisco Montes leads ayahuasca ceremonies for tourists seeking insight and healing.
18 Jun 2017
This is the story of a tiny country that made a decision to do something that no other country had ever done -- it decided to abolish its army and declare peace to the world. And this is the story of a young boy who grew up in that country, and how he ended up challenging -- and sometimes even convincing -- the greatest powers in the world to follow Costa Rica's example. "Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired" is a Don Quixote-like saga with great historical touchstones -- Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Cold War politics and Communism, Central American War and Peace. It follows a slight, academic, and most unlikely hero over the course of more than fifty years, as he travels the world in a quest to stop the spread of the weapons of war. In the end, it is a story about the triumph of reason, of the sparrow triumphing over the eagle, and how the impossible dream can sometimes come true.
01 Apr 2013
Aya: Awakenings' is an experiential journey by journalist Rak Razam into the world and visions of ayahuasca, a powerful hallucinogenic plant medicine from the Amazon, capturing the experience and the western dynamic around it in unprecedented detail.
29 Oct 2018
The story of Ayahuasca, from its emergence in the Amazonian Forest, to its popularity with the Santo Daime religion, and on to its arrival in urban centres. Combining scientific, religious and anthropological perspectives on the use of Ayahuasca in modern society, and in parallel with the director own healing process, for the first time, a holistic, yet balanced view of this controversial subject.
01 Feb 2004
No overview found
30 Jun 2004
The secrets about unlocking the mysteries of consciousness by plant-drugs. The related chances and risks involved in this shamanism. While filming Blueberry, the Secret Experience, Jan Kounen met the Shipibo healers of the Peruvian Amazon and discovered their sacred plant: Ayahuasca, the spirit vine. Deeply affected by this experience, he decided to return to Peru to shoot a documentary on the plant and the medicinal rites of the shamans. To this end, he filmed the natives but also met neurologists, philosophers, artists, and chemists working on this subject. He notably interviewed Jean Giraud, the illustrator of Blueberry, and Kary Mullis, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. More than a traditional documentary, the film is an invitation to travel, a half-open door to another world or another perception of reality. The secrets about unlocking the mysteries of consciousness by plant-drugs. The related chances and risks involved in this shamanism.
19 Apr 2008
Plant Explorer Richard Evans Schultes was a real life Indiana Jones whose discoveries of hallucinogenic plants laid the foundation for the psychedelic sixties. Now in this two hour History Channel TV Special, his former student Wade Davis, follows in his footsteps to experience the discoveries that Schultes brought to the western world. Shot around the planet, from Canada to the Amazon, we experience rarely seen native hallucinogenic ceremonies and find out the true events leading up to the Psychedelic Sixties. Featuring author/adventurer Wade Davis ("Serpent and the Rainbow"), Dr. Andrew Weil, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and many others, this program tells the story of the discovery of peyote, magic mushrooms and beyond: one man's little known quest to classify the Plants of the Gods. Richard Evans Schultes revolutionized science and spawned another revolution he never imagined.
05 Mar 1947
This travelogue of Costa Rica, the second smallest of the American republics, starts at San Jose Airport. Transportation is key within the country, boasting among the best roads in the world. San Jose itself is the capital, a small city of about 70,000, with many recreational areas in its suburbs. Heading out of the city, we come to an orchid farm, there being said to be more varieties of the plant in Costa Rica than anywhere else in the world. Next, we move to the volcanic mountains, the range within Costa Rica which contains the largest crater in the world. We then move to the farmland, with coffee and bananas being the primary agricultural export crops.
30 Jun 2018
How do we heal our deepest wounds? Two combat veterans, suffering from severe trauma, abandon pharmaceuticals in order to seek healing through psychedelic medicines. Recent scientific research has shown that these substances can help people to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Beyond the personal stories, From Shock to Awe raises fundamental questions about war, the pharmaceutical industry, and the US legal system.
21 Jan 2022
What motivates a cock-fighter to fight a rooster he loves? In Costa Rica, cockfighting is considered a crime and has been banned for 99 years. A large part of society rejects this tradition and those who practice it, but is it fair to morally judge a cock-fighter as a criminal? We will get to know the other side of the coin through the gaze of the cock-fighter.
01 Jan 2000
Cost Rica is one of the most diverse places on Earth. This exploration features Costa Rica's unique animal inhabitants, including various monkeys, birds, frogs, even caimans and fruit-eating bats.
01 Jan 2001
SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON is a personal account of filmmaker Dean Jefferys as he returns to the Amazon with his partner and one year old daughter. They journey deep into the Ecuadorian rainforest to learn about and experience the ancient ayahuasca healing ceremony. The film brings to the viewer an intimate and fascinating look at the shamans of the Amazon, and the life that is threatened by ecological destruction.
20 Apr 2012
A nature documentary centered on a family of chimps living in the Ivory Coast and Ugandan rain forests. Through Oscar, a little chimpanzee, we discover learning about life in the heart of the African tropical forest and follow his first steps in this world with humor, emotion and anguish. Following a tragedy, he finds himself separated from his mother and left alone to face the hostility of the jungle. Until he is picked up by an older chimpanzee, who will take him under her protection.
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.