Ayahuasca animation by Lisaa students

3 Responses to “Ayahuasca animation by Lisaa students”

1. 

   Sadhana August 26, 2011 at 4:56 pm #

   Instead of making this animation a metaphysical meditation on transcendent experience, they made it a trite commentary on colonialism? Plus, they amalgamized 3 totally discrete tribal cultures into one reductionist caricature. They used Australian didgeridoos in the audio, set in the Amazon, with a dreadlocked man wearing an African tribal mask. This is a sad commentary on the Western perspective of the psychedelic experience from a materialist point of view. Moreover, it is a resurrection of a condescending and simplisitic 19th century viewpoint of “primitivism” and a poor representation of South American native culture. It verifies and strengthens the colonial narrative that it vilifies from a colonialist perspective without even realizing it.

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2. 

   Julia Nicole Richardson September 1, 2011 at 3:14 pm #

   Sadhana, I understand your critique but feel it was a bit too harsh and judgmental. I think this is one person’s understanding of La Medicina (I am assuming whoever made this has had personal experience with Aya). La Medicina has a different relationship with each person, as all plants do, and every person’s experience is different. I have worked with the medicine for the past 2 years and much of the imagery in the movie is spot on. I think it’s a bit limited and certainly does not represent the multitude of feelings and messages and power that is Ayahuasca, but it’s a short animated film. I think this represents one layer of La Medicina, an outer layer, if you will. Could it have gone deeper? Certainly, but that would mean the person who made the film just needs to work with the mother medicine a bit more 🙂

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3. 

   Holographic Elf September 2, 2011 at 3:47 pm #

   It was a collaboration of 5 students and we don’t know, if only one person was behind the script.

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