Work in progress 2025

Coca Dulce, Tabaco Frío er tilraunakennd heimildarmynd í fullri lengd, tekin upp á 16mm filmu í Amazon frumskóginum í Kólumbíu. Unnið er með innfæddum úr ættbálki Huitoto og Murui indjána og umfjöllunarefnið eru plöntulyfin coca og tóbak, sem eiga sér aldalanga sögu og gegna mikilvægu hlutverki í menningarheimi indíána víða um Suður-Ameríku. Coca Dulce Tabaco Frío er sjálfstætt framhald myndar leikstjórans A Tree is Like a Man (2019) sem fjallar um shamaninn Don William og samband hans við plöntulyfið ayahuasca.

Rauði þráðurinn í Coca Dulce, Tabaco Frío verða goðsagnir um það hvernig guðirnir gáfu manneskjunni plönturnar coca og tóbak að gjöf í upphafi heimsins. Gjöfin var með því skilyrði að mennirnir varðveittu þessar heilögu plöntur og þekkinguna sem með þeim kemur, og notuðu þær til góðs. Mennirnir áttu að draga lærdóm af þessum plöntum, virða þær og vinna með þeim sem samherjar. Eins og ljóst er hefur raunin orðið önnur og samkvæmt indjánunum súpum við í dag seyðið af því. Bæði tóbak og coca laufið hafa verið misnotuð í þeim skilningi að úr þeim hafa verið unnin eiturlyf sem eru svo sannarlega ekki notuð til að læra eða vinna vel, heldur hafa fært ótal fólki óhamingju, erfiðleika og dauða, og einstaka einstaklingum ómældan auð og völd, sem er ekki það sem indjánarnir trúa að sé markmið coca og tóbaks.

English:

The film is structured as a river that constantly flows on, moving effortlessly between the macro and the micro, sky, earth and water, through the veil that separates our reality from the reality of the spirits. It begins with images of the coca plant. The plant speaks to the audience through voice-over, addressing the human race as a whole. We are then introduced to Don William, an indigenous shaman who is the main human character, who leads us through the film and gives us the human perspective.

The film will weave a tapestry of legends and mythologies with stories of everyday life of the indigenous people living in the Amazon today. Through the words of different people in the indigenous community the audience will learn how these plants are important to their lives and how they continue to impact them in different ways. We hear stories of people who have been displaced because of the civil war that raged in Colombia for decades. Along with stories and myths the film depicts current day-to-day lives of indigenous people in the Amazon; complete with commodities such as smartphones and mass-produced clothing meanwhile respecting their history and their spiritual ancestors and keeping them always present in their lives.

The film stays in the jungle, always bringing its focus back to the plant, its voice, its power and its beauty. Inherent in the life of the indigenous population is protecting the environment; how they traditionally live is a sustainable way of co-existing with the natural world around them. This is a part of what is so important about protecting the indigenous way of life, as protecting indigenous knowledge and their way of living is a way to protect the environment.

THORBJORG JONSDOTTIR is a visual artist and filmmaker from Iceland who holds a MFA degree from CalArts. Her film and video work navigates between experimental narratives, documentary work and landscape films. Thorbjorg’s films have screened in galleries and the film festival circuit. Her recent short documentary A tree is like a man (2019) premiered at CPH:DOX where it competed in the NEXT:WAVE section. Coca Dulce Tabaco Frío is her first feature documentary.

HANNA BJÖRK VALSDÓTTIR is a producer and director specializing in creative documentaries for international market. As producer she is two-time recipient of the Edda: Icelandic Film Award for Best documentary and has been nominated seven times. Her first production Dreamland (2009) premiered in competition at IDFA. In 2014 she founded her production company Akkeri Films. Previous releases include DIVE: rituals in water (2019), The Last Autumn (2019), Broken Dreamland (2022), HEX (2022), The Vagus Symphony (2024), Bogancloch (2024) The Ground Beneath Our Feet (2025). In production are Coca Dulce Tabaco Frio by Thorbjorg Jonsdottir, The Heath by Jessica Auer and Wongai by Hanna Björk.