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We have started a new crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to start production, please visit:
Hemos iniciado una nueva campaña de financiamiento colectivo para poder iniciar la producción, por favor visitar:
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[Para la campaña en castellano, ¡hacer Click Aquí!]
Thank you for your time to read this. Please consider contributing to our campaign to fund a cultural project in Peru that combines film, dance and the ancient wisdom from the Andes to promote the respect for nature.
A Screendance Film Project
PEREGRINA is a 25 minute long screendance film project to be filmed in May of 2012 in the Andean region of Ancash in Peru. In videodance the body’s movement is crafted and composed for the screen. This one is about a female pilgrim (peregrina, in Spanish) and her sacred journey to an ancient shrine.
The film will explore the relationship between consciousness, body movement, and natural and cultural landscapes through the staging of a pilgrimage traveling eastward from the Pacific coast to the ceremonial center of Chavin, located in the central Andes of Peru. Once the character reaches the temple, she participates in an initiation ritual with a 'teacher plant' (Wachuma, also known as San Pedro Cactus, scientific name Trichocereus pachanoi) after which she meets the spirit that resides inside the temple and is reborn into a new level of consciousness.
Pilgrimage in the Andes
'Pilgrimage' is the act of traveling to a sacred foreign place in search of something. The 'sacred' is what is associated with the spiritual world. In the Andean cosmovision, natural elements such as the wind, the earth, mountains, lakes, and deserts are animated and sacred. A pilgrimage in the Andes has then a special character and through the film we want to explore this: how the mind, body & soul relate to these natural environments, but also how they relate to cultural landscapes: these are physical transformations of natural landscapes made by societies and may or may not be considered sacred by these. The Chavin ceremonial complex is a sacred cultural landscape and the pilgrim woman will undergo an initiation ritual here to arrive at another state of consciousness. An initiation ritual is a structured ceremony where an individual changes his or her social status. In the film, the ceremony will consists of three stages where the pilgrim woman will depart from the present world with the help of the priestess, descend into the underworld, and come back with embodied new knowledge.
The Ceremonial Center of Chavín de Huantar
Photograph of Chavín de Huántar, taken from the southeast (Source: CyArk's Chavin de Huantar Digital Media Archive)
This is a temple complex of terraces and squares made by the Chavín de Huántar society more than three thousand years ago. It is located in the centre of the Peruvian Andes, has more than 2 kilometers of underground galleries, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. During the Chavin period, pilgrims from all over the Andean known world journeyed to this ceremonial centre for a variety of reasons: to consult the oracle, to obtain political legitimacy, to find spiritual & physical healing, to become members of the cult, and/or simply to appreciate a place that never existed before and was a portal between the terrestrial and the divine worlds.
It was one of the oldest pilgrimage destinations on the planet and is a place where the foundations of the tangible and intangible culture of Andean societies were taken to a new level. Physical and symbolic elements, such as the Tello Obelisk, the Tenon Heads, and the Great Huanca (maybe the only representation of a deity in the Americas that still remains in its original place) are evidence of the great ideological and institutional development that was achieved by this society 3000 years ago. Currently, the archaeological site requires a lot of work, as it is threatened by poor drainage, structural instability, inadequate site maintenance, and the endemic poverty of the local populace.
The Cast
MARISEL LA ROSA as The Pilgrim Woman
Dance Movement Therapist and Dancer. Her education in contemporary dance began when she was ten years old and she has attended several dance schools in Peru. She studied Dance Movement Therapy in Argentina after which she returned to live in Lima and has remained there since 2009. Her main interests concern “movement as creation”, “movement as healing”, the integration of mind, body, and spirit in Dance, the blending of physical and emotional health, as well as the use of dance as a means of self-knowledge and openness (Photograph by Carlos José Rouillon).
ANA ZAVALA RÍOS as The Priestess & Director of Choreography:
A dancer and choreographer. Her work is based on the combination and interaction of various disciplines of movement. 'Body-time-space' is a work elements as well as traditional and contemporary dance. Along with Oscar Naters forms the core of INTEGRO, one of the most important groups of contemporary dance in Peru.
There is a third dancer planned, a male one, who will characterize the Spirit of the Wachuma.
The Director and Declaration of Intent
Director, Producer & Writer: CARLO BRESCIA
(Photograph by Cesar Torales).
I was born in Lima and I have lived for almost twelve years in Huaraz, a city located in the Peruvian Andes at 3000 meters above sea level. I am dedicated to the management of cultural projects, particularly audiovisual production concerning social or environmental issues. The PEREGRINA project will be my eight production.
In this project I am consolidating a visual exploration of issues that have interested me since I came to live in Ancash's Qechuan world. On one side are the themes of body awareness and expression that I have researched through my studies in anthropology and through the different physical activities that I have done, such as mountain climbing, biking and hiking. Then there are the issues of indigenous cultures, the Andean worldview, the Chavin culture and cultural landscapes that fascinate me sufficiently that I have produced documentaries and published magazines about them.
In addition to the issues mentioned above, this project also coincides with my career goal to implement projects that promote better relationships between people and themselves, with others (and future others), and with the natural environment. This project for me is not “just another film project”: this is a group project, an offering project, a medicinal project, a project intended as a tribute to the Andean world and its people which has given us so much, still gives to us, and will continue to give to us if we value it in the way it should always have been valued.
Below you will find the Trailer of my 2010 production, YAKU PATSA. In this documentary I explored the culture of an Andean region named Conchucos through the relations that people have with water and mountains.
Watch the trailer here.
What are the Funds for?
It would be almost impossible to achieve a high level of quality in this project without the knowledge, experience, and efforts of a talented team. And in this team, a very important part is the will, the stake, and the economic contribution of people who know us well, those who know us a little, or those who may not know us at all, but still believe that a project like this one is very necessary.
The film's structure is based on a mythic journey and will consist of four parts: A prologue (The Calling), a 1st act (Transit through natural landscapes), a 2nd act (Transit through cultural landscapes) and an epilogue (The Rebirth Dance). The 1st and 2nd acts are the core of the video and will occupy almost 80% of the total duration of the film. All four parts will be filmed in 10 days but a great deal of preparation will be necessary, such as rehearsals, costumes/props design, and a field expedition with the cast and part of the crew.
Much of the money required is necessary to hire the cast & crew who will dedicate themselves full-time to the required activities in the three main phases of the project. The phases, components and activities that require funding are:
- Pre Production Phase.- (March, April & May 2012) We need funding to hire the artistic cast for full-time dedication at rehearsals (characters and choreographer); carry out a field expedition with the cast and crew (director of photography) to identify in detail the different natural/cultural locations; and the development of costumes and make-up.
- Production Phase.- (June 2012) We need funding to hire for 10 days the artistic cast & crew (director of photography, production assistant, camera operator, sound mixer, make-up artist) and cover some of the logistics costs (travel, accommodation and board).
- Post Production Phase.- (June & July 2012) We need funding to hire the film editor, visual effects editor, color editor, sound editor and graphic designer.
What do you get for supporting us?
For supporting our project we have designed rewards that relate to the themes of the film: pilgrimage, initiation rituals and the Chavin society. We will update this page with pictures of these in February.
The film's postcards signed by the director, Marisel and Ana Z will be deliverable by May 2012.
The film's Online streaming, DVD, magazine, 30-postcard book, the Chavin Stone Amulet, the Lliklla and the set of musical instruments will be delivered by September 2012.
The guided-tour will take place between July to September 2012, you choose! Please ask for details if interested, we will include updates here!
Other Ways You Can Help
1. Give a "Like" to the project in this page!
Team on This Campaign:
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Carlo Brescia
Director, Producer & Writer
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Gladys Jimenez
Associate Producer
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GiuAssociate Producer
