Trance Cinema: Shamanism and Mysticism in the Southern Hemisphere March 21, 2009

Event: Trance Cinema: Shamanism and Mysticism in the Southern Hemisphere, a screening of the award-winning documentary Eduardo the Healer, a film about the famed Peruvian shaman, Tepoztlán, about the Mexican village with a history of it’s Toltec origins and mysticism, recounted by historian, ethnomusicologist and artist Victor Zaballa. Zaballa will also show rare historic images from Tepoztlán. Also a clip from Primitive Man in a Modern World, a baffling examination of primitive peoples by the crackpot film company, the Moody Institute of Science.
Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Trance Cinema:

Shamanism and Mysticism
in South America

On Saturday, March 21st at 8:00PM Oddball Films Presents another installment of Trance Cinema, an ongoing screening of films examining higher consciousness. Tonight we present Trance Cinema: Shamanism and Mysticism in South America featuring Eduardo the Healer, Tepoztlán and Modern Man in a Primitive World. Cultural historian, ethnomusicologist and artist Victor Zaballa will also discuss and present images of its Toltec origins, healing arts and mysticism of Tepoztlán including some of the mystery (UFO sightings) as well as the seamier aspects of its recent New Age rebirth and Lonely Planet destination hot spot.

Featuring:

Eduardo the Healer (1979)
This full-length award-winning documentary, sponsored by The Drug Abuse Council of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare profiles Eduardo Calderon, a Peruvian Village fisherman, sculptor and shaman who, like Castenda’s Don Juan uses incantations, insightful psychological analysis and hallucinogenic drugs to practice his healing arts.
Practicing in a poor, small coastal Peruvian community near the city of Trujillo, Eduardo uses the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus. The client and the healer both ingest the substance during the ritual, which only takes place when an illness has been diagnosed to require it. Eduardo.. follows him through a typical day and concludes with a powerful nighttime sequence showing him curing a young man suffering from severe depression. Shown as a wise, warm, fascinating man of exceptional character, Eduardo, through his views of the human psyche, suggests there is more to the practice of medicine than modern technology admits, particularly those unfamiliar with the understanding that illness and disease are culturally defined concepts.
Eduardo the Healer is considered one of the ground-breaking documentaries in the field of Medical Anthropology and is screened in Universities around the world.

Tepoztlán ( Color, 1971)
The name Tepoztlán is a Nahuatl word and means place of abundant copper. The population is roughly 33,000 people. Tepoztlán has a long history. Some of the archeological finds from around the area date back to 1500 B.C. By the 10th century a.d. the Toltec culture was predominant in this region. The Tepozteco mountain has been a ceremonial centre for many centuries and it features a white-washed pyramid at the top. Most recently Tepoztlán has become a center of the New Age movement and has attracted many artists to live here. There have even been some unverified UFO sightings in the area.
Famous in the 60s with the free love mystics, psychedelic gurus Michael Bowen lived here with John Starr Cooke and Timothy Leary spent time here as well. Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid was filmed in Tepoztlán. In recent years, despite the guidebooks touting the town as an undiscovered sanctuary of serenity there has been a long history of artists and bohemians living there. Recently new age spas have filtered in though Tepoztlán is still on Mexican Time so change is slow. This film was based on research by Oscar Lewis and Robert Redfield who authored a ground-breaking study of Tepoztlán in 1930. While the film depicts village life stripped of its native spirituality and ritual, focusing more on agriculture and customs Zaballa, an authority on prehispanic culture will fill in the gaps of this fascinating town near Mexico City.

Primitive Man in a Modern World (1959, Color) by the crackpot Christian Moody Institute of Science is a bizarre and baffling (i.e. What Were they thinking when they made this?) examination of primitive peoples in South America from the Mayans to the coca chewing Indians of Peru.