Project Description
AYA: Awakenings is an audiovisual journey into the world and visions of ayahuasca shamanism produced by the Undergrowth collective. Adapted from the book 'Aya: a Shamanic Odyssey' by Rak Razam (Icaro Publishing), this experimental documentary has evolved from a live audiovisual performance created as part of a book tour in California in late 2009 which blended spoken word, atmospheric sound design by Buttons Touching and hypnotic psychedelic visuals mixed with documentary footage and photography by video artist Tim Parish (Verb Studios). After two popular performances, it was also invited to perform at the Evolutionary Temple at Burning Man Festival 2009 in Nevada. In 2010 an early version of the documentary was performed at the Cairns Winter Solstice festival in Australia.
The final “video book” ("vook") merges narration gleaned from select chapters of the book with interviews and innovative sound design, taking the audience on a journey into the jungles of Peru, where the practice of traditional shamanism has an unbroken lineage to the present day. The documentary utilizes interviews with practicing curanderos, and incorporates traditional icaros or magic songs, photographs and video recorded in Peru, mixed with traditional patterns to reproduce the visions seen through the ayahuasca trance.
The project is aimed at funding six high-definition final short videos, already roughly assembled from the tour, which need final animation, sound and video editing mastering, to complete a 90-120 minute “video book” (vook) / DVD, which will also be available as discreet clips for the iPhone and iPad.
Your support will directly fund cutting edge animators, and pay the video editor, sound designer and artists whose artwork and photos are sampled in the clips, as well as operating costs in getting these clips finished and released to the public. The first two clips are draft completed and were video shorts before the recent Mitch Schultz "Spirit Molecule" documentary tour Down Under in Dec 2010, see http://undergrowth.org/spiritmoleculetour ) and are breathtaking works. Unlike the plethora of indy ayahuasca documentaries coming out, these show the experience from the inside out, alongside a memoir-narrative that guides you through the journey into Peruvian shamanism and helps make sense of it.
To read the critically acclaimed book the video series is based, on, please visit:
http://www.ayathebook.com
And to view some of the video editor's work (Verb) visit
http://www.undergrowth.org/fiat_lux_evolutonary_vision_words_by_hugo_video_by_verb
http://www.undergrowth.org/time_waits_written_and_directed_by_timothy_parish_verb_studios
Whether you're into ayahuasca culture, shamanism, or just support the creative work of Rak Razam and the Undergrowth Collective making consciousness-raising media, we're calling on your help now to become a supporter. Help us get the url of this Pozible project out to the world through your social media and other online community connections, and, most importantly, to support us by donating to the project - and being reciprocally rewarded!
Project By
In 2006 Razam visited Peru on a feature magazine assignment to see what the almost mythical archetype of the shaman was really like in the 21st century. The result is AYA: a Shamanic Odyssey, a unique spiritual adventure that documents the archetypal Western quest, propelling the reader on a cosmological-travel-memoir into the jungles of South America and the psychic landscapes of Amazonian shamanism.
Excerpts from AYA have been published in Australian Penthouse (Sept 2006); High Times (Aug 2007); and Filmmaker magazine online (Oct 2007). Razam was also interviewed and appears in the CBS (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's) 2007 audio documentary In Search of the Divine Vegetal talking about his ayahuasca experiences, which has been broadcast twice due to special demand to millions of people throughout North America.
Razam's journey in writing this book embodies the shamanic experience tens of thousands of Westerners are undergoing each year. He is a public commentator on the underlying need of the West to reconnect with indigenous wisdom; the business of spirituality and the role of the media in reporting on the ayahuasca movement and the emerging 'global shamanism' paradigm.
For more information visit: www.rakrazam.com
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