THE EVENT:
SUNDAY, MARCH 10th, 2024 2 - 4:30 pm*Museum open for touring before and after event
@ MOLAA - Museum of Latin American Art628 Alamitos Ave, Long Beach, CA 90802
A COMMUNITY BLESSING, SCREENING AND FUNDRAISER
We look forward to celebrating 'MIWENE' with this special screening and fundraiser for the school featured in the documentary. All proceeds and donations from the event will go directly to the Waorani school of Kewediono in the Ecuadorian Amazon to help repair classrooms and solar panels needed for maintaining such a remote school.
Get your finest (and most fun) attire ready for this red carpet celebration! Join the opening performance with Sisters of the One Drum, followed by aflute blessing with Guillermo Martinez and a land acknowledgment by PUVUUNGNA elder. There will be massage stations provided by the Panacea Holistic Institute and a silent auction throughout the event. Immediately following the screening there will be a pre-recorded conversation with Waorani director Obe Nenquimo and then an in-person Q&A with US filmmaker, Keith Heyward.
A huge thank you to MOLAA, Panacea Holistic Institute, Jane Free Productions, Prehensile Productions and most certainly the people of the Amazon Forest for opening their homes.
VIRTUAL SCREENING OPTION :Be part of the experience at home. - see option below
THE FILM :
Steeped in the long oral tradition of Waorani storytelling and told over 11 years of filming, Anita Yeti shares her own coming-of-age story as a young Waorani woman living deep within the Amazon rainforest -- determined to capture her grandmother’s unique experience while she still can.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Director’s Statement:
MIWENE is a labor of love and the result of an 11 year collaboration with the indigenous Waorani community of Kewediono in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We have strived to spread creative control and ownership to multiple storytellers in the process, as is more aligned with the Waorani’s custom of storytelling and collaboration. Thus, MIWENE effectively has four primary directors. Anita Gange Yeti and Obe Nenquimo are indigenous Waorani women from the community of Kewediono, and Jennifer Berglund and I (Keith Heyward) are filmmakers from the USA who originally volunteered as teachers in Kewediono in 2011.
From its inception, this collaboration was grounded in the acknowledgement that the telling of indigenous experiences have always been dominated by outside perspectives with more privilege and resources. Thus, it was critical for us to acknowledge the inherent imbalance of power that the non-Waorani collaborators brought to the project, and thus seek every opportunity to give creative control and financial ownership of the film to the subjects of the film and the community members whose stories were being represented. The leadership of Gange Yeti and Obe Nenquimo in particular were invaluable in building these community relationships and crafting a more authentic story at all stages of the filmmaking process, despite the technical challenges of living in such an isolated community.
For the past 11 years, we have fostered close relationships with many families of Kewediono, developing trust, understanding, and collaboration that was crucial for telling this story. We have watched some of our closest friends in the community grapple with suicide, illness, and the loss of loved ones from snake bites and lack of medical access. As these experiences and relationships developed, the story developed along with it becoming a more personal exploration of culture, identity, and agency. Driving that story is the perspective that culture and identity are never static and inherently always modern in their manifestations. They are not things to be preserved, but lived.
- Keith Heyward
Questions? Want to participate? email us: [email protected]
Gives access to the live, in person Screening of 'Miwene' followed by Q&A- includes access to the Museum of Latin American Art, as well as 2 tickets toward the raffle and a 10 minute chair massage provided by Panacea Holistic Institute.
Gives access to the live, in person Screening of 'Miwene' followed by Q&A - includes access to the Museum of Latin American Art. As well as 2 tickets toward the fundraiser raffle.
Gives access to the live, in person Screening of 'Miwene' followed by Q&A - includes access to the Museum of Latin American Art.
optional - all proceeds from this screening go directly to the Waorani school featured in the film to help provide solar panels and electricity to their classrooms.
Access to a one time viewing link for you to watch in your home theatre / on your own device.
Yes, it's okay to send me text messages including confirmations, changes, and updates. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. View our terms of service & privacy policy.
