Jack          Julie         Iva         Katherine       Lorenzo

My name is Jack, I am a photographer and filmmaker living in New York City. In 2010, my mother Iva, my girlfriend Julie, our friend Katherine, and I were invited to accompany Lorenzo, a high Andean priest (or paqo), back to his homeland of Qeros in a remote part of the Peruvian Andes. This was something unprecedented, something that has never before been offered to anyone  to enter with cameras and film the sacred initiation ceremonies, or karpays, of these famously reclusive people.

The Qero are a culture that lives with deep connections to the workings of Mama Pacha (Mother Earth), and Pacha Mama, who is the Cosmic Mother; their traditions are thousands of years old. In the 1500s, when the Spanish invaded, the Qero returned to their homeland in a high, isolated part of Peru to escape and they remained there, maintaining their traditions. With no connection to the outside world, time basically stood still for the Qero.

On this unchartered adventure taken through the Sacred Valley of the Incas and culminating in a journey on foot and horseback to Qeros, we were introduced to the Apus the spirits of the sacred mountains of Peru, considered to be the most powerful of all nature spirits. Most importantly, we were invited into the Qeros ancient rituals of the karpays, a series of ceremonies that are a bestowal of power of the ancient lineage.  As we experienced these often rigorous ceremonies, we were reconnecting to the ancestors and the elements: the stars, wind, water, lake, moon, the sun, and the Incas.

The Impact

On our Journey we discovered the real reason these famously shy and humble people unexpectedly opened their doors to us: we had to become qualified to deliver a message the Q'ero urgently want to share with a western world they feel is in great peril. We returned home carrying this message, which, as 2012 approaches, may be one of the most important messages our struggling planet can receive. This is why they asked us to make this film, and why we need your help to finish.

What We Need & What You Get

Don Lorenzo and Don Isidro in their Ch'ullos and Ponchos laying out coca leaves on a Mesa

Other Ways You Can Help

If you believe in our project please help us anyway you can, even if its just $5.  Help us get the word out by reposting this on your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other social media.  By helping us out to reach our goal we believe that we will all truly benefit from the message we have been asked by the Q'ero to tell the world.