guayusa ceremony

At 3:30 in the morning, before the sky begins to lighten, the Kichwa community of Serena gathers around the fire. The ceremony begins in silence. Guayusa leaves are brewed into tea, a traditional practice used to awaken the body and prepare the spirit for the day ahead. As the tea is brought around, stories and dreams are shared in the Kichwa language, passed down from generation to generation.

What follows is not announced, but simply unfolds. The ritual shifts without explanation. A poisonous frog is carefully burned to extract its venom, then cooked over fire. This act, while difficult to witness, is deeply symbolic. It represents the transformation of danger into nourishment, and a gesture of respect for the natural world. Drums begin to beat, dancers move with the rhythm, and the atmosphere shifts with the growing light, becoming more embodied. Later, a tobacco cleansing ritual is performed, meant to purify the spirit. And finally, just as light begins to touch the trees, the community walks to the river to cleanse their bodies in the cold water, accompanied by a song sung in Kichwa during the ceremony.

I didn’t want to impose a linear or overly explanatory structure. The first time I experienced it, I felt deeply disoriented, like I was moving through a dream. So I made the film to reflect that. It flows quickly from one moment to the next, without spelling everything out. It doesn’t slow down to explain each action or translate every word. Instead, it captures fragments of experience just as I had been doing that morning. Putting together the film I wanted this disorientation to be deliberate: the ceremony wasn’t designed for you to observe, it was designed to be lived. I wanted the viewer to feel the same sense of drifting through something sacred and complex without fully grasping it. One moment it’s night, the next it’s day. You’re left wondering how you got from one to the other.

I chose not to explain everything because I believe that space for not knowing is important. Leaving some parts open-ended encourages questions, and questions lead to deeper conversations. I wanted this film to do something different, to invite reflection, curiosity, and respect for traditions that are not always meant to be translated directly.

This film is not a guide. It’s an experience, brief, mysterious, and disorienting, just like the ceremony itself.