Earth Day 2024 Screening

April 26, 2024 | 6:30PM | @FRESH – Carmichael & Lamaha Sts, Georgetown., The TIMEHRI CINEMA NIGHTS, a film screening series showcasing Guyanese and Caribbean films, to Guyanese audiences is back this month in celebration of EARTH DAY. Once again, this month’s screening venue is @FRESH, one of Georgetown’s favorite healthy food spots. We will be screening 2 films, the feature length documentary, “UNCIVILIZED,” a very Caribbean story about the decimation of an entire Caribbean island by a category 5 hurricane, and how the country survived it, and the short film “RODORI ~WANORE (HEALING OF THE EARTH),” centering ancestral indigenous knowledge about our connection with the Earth. Admission to the event is FREE and @FRESH’s delectable bites and drinks, will be available for purchase. Please RSVP here. Post-screening, we love engaging in lively conversations. These films bring up themes of spirituality, collective responsibility, community, climate change, and human relations in the face of crisis. In the context of 2024 Guyana, who are we and how do we, as Guyanese show up in these conversations? With our facilitation of the extraction of oil, while at the same time being forest “stewards,” and where the divide between the rich and poor is wider than it has ever been and about 40% of the people in the country still live below the poverty line, we are poised to see rabid (a step beyond rapid) economic growth while resisting considerations of the impact of extraction (economic, social and environmental), our responsibility to care for our Earth, and infuse balance in our choices. There are no shortage of views on this, and we would love to hear them all. Check out the films we’ll be screening below, and come join us! SHORT FILM RODORI ~WANORE (HEALING OF THE WORLD) by Bladimir Rivera Macuna of The Collective Jaguares del Yurupari Barasano Community | Vaupés Region | Colombia 8 mins | 2020 | Language of the Barasano People Synopsis: The Payes of the Barasano people in the Pira Parana River of the Colombian Amazon, show and explain the path of shamanic thought and the need to heal the world, to maintain natural balance and healthy life. Bladimir Rivera Macuna and The Collective Jaguares del Yurupari The Collective Jaguares del Yurupari was in charge of the realization of the stories, “Rodori ~Wanore (Healing of the World),” and is an emerging communications team made up of young people from the Pira Parana Region, inheritors of the traditional knowledge of the Jaguares del Yurupari, attached to the Association of Captains and Traditional Indigenous Authorities, of the Pira Parana River.  

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FEATURE FILM UNCIVILIZED

by Michael Lees Dominica 75 mins | 2019

Synopsis: Disenchanted with the modern world, Michael Lees heads into the forest of Dominica with some basic survival gear, religious texts, a camera, and questions: “Why did man ever leave the forest? And what makes for a good life?” Just as he starts to acclimatize to his new life – the unexpected: Category 5 Hurricane Maria, one of the top ten Atlantic hurricanes in history, makes direct landfall. Michael must ride out the hurricane in his palm leaf and bamboo hut. With the nation in ruins, the forest destroyed, and essential services knocked out islandwide, the entire country must now return to a past way of life if they hope to survive. Uncivilized is an adventure, as much as it is a meditation on the necessities of a good life – a timely question in an age of climate change and over-consumption.   Michael Lees Michael Lees is a Dominican filmmaker whose films explore themes of environmentalism and spirituality, aiming to connect the dots in the “bigger picture.” Michael attended UNC Chapel Hill, where he spent the first half of his college career studying business at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, later switching his major from business to film. Lees has written, shot, and edited for clients ranging from Billboard to UNICEF.   We’re looking forward to spending this time with you. One love! The Timehri Film Festival team