The 麻豆传媒 Film Institute's 35th Annual Film 麻豆传媒 will conclude with a screening of Ciro Guerra鈥檚 Embrace of the Serpent on March 5th.
As rich visually as it is thematically, Embrace of the Serpent offers a feast of the senses for film fans seeking a dose of bracing originality. The story centers on the relationship of an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon region of Colombia for a sacred healing plant. The historical drama, shot mainly in black and white, offers a visual exploration of man, nature and the meeting of penetrating minds with differing world views. The film was inspired by the real journals of two 20thcentury explorers.
The screening will begin at 2:00PM at the Kerr McGee Auditorium in the Meinders School of Business at NW 27th Street and McKinley Ave. A discussion will follow the presentation for those who wish to stay. Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated.
ACCOLADES FOR EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT
-鈥淟ike Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (and the movie it inspired, Apocalypse Now), the drama examines the idea of progress and what it means to be civilized.鈥� Wash. Post
-鈥淎 dazzlingly elegiac reverie about the ravages of colonialism on Amazonian tribes.鈥� New York Observer
-鈥淧lenty of movies have ensnared their white heroes in the green infinity of the Amazon, but Embrace digs so deep into the void that it eventually burrows out the other side, reclaiming the wilderness as a reservoir of lost memories.鈥� Rolling Stone
-鈥淭his film conveys a haunting sense of the Western world having lost its compass. Wisdom is fleeting, it tells us. The Amazon is fragile. The rocks and plants speak to us too, if we're willing to listen.鈥� Wall Street Journal
-鈥�Embrace of the Serpent, a fantastical mixture of myth and historical reality, shatters lingering illusions of first-world culture as more advanced than any other, except technologically.鈥� NY Times
-鈥�Embrace of the Serpent is a legitimate stunner, a river-trip that will mesmerize and jack with you, leaving you not quite certain, at its end, how to go about the rest of your day.鈥� Village Voice
