The film “Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians” will be on a North American tour with 30+ screenings in more than 20 cities in the United States and Canada, including a stop in Sedona at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Wednesday, Dec. 3. The film chronicles the movement to save a sacred land and a visionary culture.
The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the premiere which will feature guests from the film — Huichol spiritual leaders — who will introduce the film and host Q&A discussions after the two screenings at 4 and 7 p.m. at the festival’s Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
The documentary presents the emblematic case of the defense of Wirikuta, sacred territory to the Wixárika (Huichol) people against the threat of transnational mining corporations. The Wixárika people, native to the Sierra Madre, have since time immemorial made their pilgrimages to this land; now they find themselves at the forefront of a spiritual crusade to protect life, evidencing the internal contradictions in our materialistic world.
The movie, which drew 3,000 people to a single showing in Mexico City, won awards in Argentina and brought a mining industry executive to tears in Chile, has been sought by viewers in more than 40 countries, many of whom are going on to organize showings in their own cities.
“This is more than a movie – it’s a movement,” said Argentine director Hernan Vilchez, who received the request to make the movie from the Elder’s Council when he visited remote mountain community on a different assignment. Vilchez left his job and took the challenge, following the deeply spiritual Huichol people for more than three years; together with the production crew interviewing more than 30 individuals and documenting the growing storm as a movement built in Mexico’s civil society to support them in their quest to save the Birthplace of the Sun.
Vilchez and two Mara’kate (Huichol spiritual leaders), the father and son protagonists, will introduce and discuss the film at each screening.
Under a historic agreement with Wixarika traditional authorities, the film crew will be reporting all proceeds publicly and will hold a second meeting at the end of November to continue developing projects in the communities depicted in the film