Living Libraries - Wisdom A.LIVE
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Documenting and preserving Indigenous wisdom through filmmaking and Web3 for global healing, with an emphasis on mental health and environmental connection. Funds support education and autonomy for Indigenous communities.

Wealth inequality, climate crisis, social polarization, addictions and mental illness all find their root cause in our disconnection with the natural world. Indigenous keepers of ancient knowledge have faced extinction numerous times in the past hundreds of years, at the hands of conquest, colonization and globalization. 

10% of the funds received in this project will be sent back to a pool to subsidize the Education Web3 program for Indigenous Peoples autonomy. 

During the uncertainty of the last pandemic, Indigenous Leaders approached us asking for help to preserve their sacred knowledge through filmmaking, recognizing that video can hold the living spirit of their oral traditions. 

➡️ Teaser of the project Living Libraries

Western science has realized in recent years that Indigenous Peoples have been practicing and guardianing medicines and ceremonies with unparalleled potential to heal difficult or “untreatable” conditions, especially around mental health. But these medicines and practices can’t be simply extracted and mass produced, for they are embedded in a radically different understanding of the world and our relationship with it. **Complex knowledge systems, with fundamentally different ways of studying and relating with reality, which hold solutions to the systemic problems inching our societies towards collapse. 

Hearing this call, Living Libraries is born, because we believe our only possible future is an ancestral future.

TL;DR

  • Wealth inequality, climate crisis, social polarization, addictions and mental illness all find their root cause in our disconnection with the natural world. Indigenous People are maintaining alive knowledge to a much healthier relation to the whole. 

  • The keepers of this ancient knowledge have faced extinction numerous times in the past hundreds of years, at the hands of conquest, colonization and globalization. Today they are asking for help to preserve their sacred knowledge through filmmaking and technological empowerment, recognizing that video can hold the living spirit of their oral traditions. 

  • Living Libraries seeks to expand on this work and serve as a bridge to protect and nurture the lineage of the wisdom keepers of the unwritten natural law. We believe that documentary filmmaking can help preserve and share this knowledge for all future generations, in the terms of these communities. This project serves both worlds.

  • With the help of FlorestaTV we will study the possibilities of blockchain as a path to go deeper in the preservation of those knowledge, registering them as they are, from present to forever, with non interference & non risk of colonial appropriation.

Living Libraries stems from our past project, in which we created the full-feature documentary about the Huni Kuin people: Eskawata Kayawai, after living and working with them for 6 years. Living Libraries is a [Bem-Te-Vi Cultural Production](Bem-Te-Vi Cultural Production) which seeks to expand on this work and serve as a bridge to protect and nurture the lineage of the wisdom keepers of the unwritten natural law. Indigenous Leaders have shared with us that a big part of their young generation is being lured away from their traditions by the seduction of globalization and modernity, walking away from the wisdom of their elders. We believe that documentary filmmaking can help preserve this knowledge for all future generations, in the terms of these communities. This project serves both worlds. 

OBSERVE, LISTEN AND DOCUMENT KNOWLEDGE 

One of the main goals of the project is to involve the young members of each community in the documenting process, while offering them communication and filmmaking workshops and tools to encourage them to become spokespeople for their communities, to register their traditions and articulate to the world what they need and what they can offer. At the same time, we will create in collaboration with the communities, articles and reports to connect the needs and situations of all the communities we visit, to be distributed with local authorities and organizations supporting Indigenous rights. 

ETHNOGRAPHIC DOCU SERIES : WHAT WE WILL GENERATE

  • One episode per village + Small Content Capsules; 
  • Chronicle the series through journalistic articles with a selection of photographs;
  • Generation of reports about each community to be articulated with Indigenous rights organizations and local authorities if the community allows it;
  • Communication trainings to encourage the young people to voice the tradition of their communities;
  • Sharing all content in worldwide partnership platforms in three languages (ENG/ESP/PORT);
  • Reciprocity: We will economically support each of the communities we visit by investing part of the funds raised into their most essential needs
  • Explore how blockchain technologies could create a permanent, tamper-proof record that can be accessed forever by future generations? 

WHERE WE ARE STARTING : BRAZILIAN AMAZON FOREST

From December / 2023 to Apr/2024
First stop - Brazilian Amazon
With the First Nations: Huni Kuin, Yawanawa, Ashaninka, Noke Kui and Shanenawa
We will come to 2-3 villages per Indigenous nation (one to two weeks per village), where we will interview elders that range from 80 to 105 years old, generating 2 episodes per Indigenous nation, or more.

OUTCOME

➡️13 episodes of 10-30 minutes each;
➡️10 short side material clips for social media;
➡️10+ Young people introduced in camera for photograph and/or filmmaking;
➡️10 Reports, one per community, in order to continuously support their needs
➡️5+ Traditional music shared in Soundcloud or Youtube
➡️5 Journalistic Articles to be published with professional photographs - one per Indigenous nation
➡️Official trailer with the main message of our elders

SCHEDULE-BUDGET

  • $5k - Assembling operational team + Generating platforms and materials + Research on the potential of Blockchain to register Indigenous Culture. 

    With 5k we’ll be able to being working on the operations front: Building the platforms to distribute the content, creating the social media pages and hiring designers to create the first posts and materials, begin building the community and generating articles, interviews and podcasts to build engagement about the project, fundraise, apply to other grants and articulate with our partner organizations. 

    We will also start researching in collaboration with FlorestaTV the potential of blockchain technologies to register Indigenous Culture and explore other possibilities for all the material we record. 

  • $10k - Production of first video promotional materials + Survey communities situations + Socio-economic projects collaboration 

    With 10k we will be able to continue working on the many tasks on the operational front and also be able to edit the first video promotional materials from our previous collaborations with indigenous communities, to showcase what the project will look like and begin sharing them with the communities we will visit and with the partners and audiences of the project. 

    This milestone will also allow us to begin the first surveys of the situation of each village and their needs and use part of these funds to begin investing in the most pressing projects of the first communities we’ll visit, to deepen the relationships we already have with them and facilitate dialogue and collaboration for the upcoming filming in each village

  • $15k - Creation of a first episode 

    With 15k we’ll be able to pay for all the costs associated with mobilizing the crew of 7 team members to generate an episode of the first community. On this filmmaking trip we’ll also be able to introduce at least 10 young members of the community to a communication and training workshop, generate a report of the community to articulate with local authorities and organizations, record and share the traditional music of the community, generate at least 1 journalistic article accompanied with a selection of professional and vibrant photographs to communicate the culture and life unique to that community, and generate other video and photographic content to be shared through social media. We will also be able to offer reciprocity to this community in the form of investing in the socio-economical project that they consider most relevant to their long-term sustainability, and document and share the impact of this in their livelihoods. 

  • $20k - Creation of a large-scale fundraising campaign + Intensive grant application + Articulation with researchers + Survey of all communities and socio-economic projects

    With the 20k milestone we’ll be able to do everything from before and use the materials from the first trip and video to create a large-scale fundraising campaign, all available platforms and with a strong focus on the audio-visual format. We will also use the content and reports generated to apply to a wide range of grants in order to reach our total goal of 130k to complete the entire project. We will also be able to begin articulating our work with researchers from different universities and institutions, primarily with social and anthropological backgrounds. We’ll also be able to survey all of the communities that we’ll visit during the trip and begin a comprehensive analysis of the systemic needs found across all of them to begin allocating resources to cost-effective projects and solutions that could be scaled across our entire journey. 

  • $25k - Creation of a second episode  

    With 25k we’ll be able to do everything listed above, plus the creation of another episode from a different community, with all the associated activities, materials and objectives listed on the 15k milestone.

Long term Budget for the all series

On the road crew : $30k
Offline crew : $10k
Post-production crew : $50k
Productions costs : $40k
Total U$130k ~ $10k per episode

Funds Prevision 

Direct donation: $30k Services donation: $20k Crowdfunding: $60k Culture Funds from Brazil: $15k Culture Funds from Europe: $15k

This is our estimate of what it would take to generate 10 episodes of the highest documentary quality, along with all the supporting materials and initiatives. However, the project will be scaled and adapted to the amount we are able to fundraise, either by shortening the amount of episodes or the crew. If we exceed the fundraising goal, everything will be destined to the next leg of the project, documenting Indigenous Elders from other continents. We hope you are able to support this project. If you resonate with our mission, please stay in touch with us. 

Core Team

This project is an initiative from Lara Jacoski (BR) with Bem-te-vi Produções, the creators of Eskawata Kayawai - The Spirit of Transformation with the Huni Kuin people - a 6 years project in the Brazilian Amazon premiered at PS2023 from MAPS followed by a 3 months US tour with 32 screenings and a 3 months EU tour, accepted in 4 international festivals (US, EU, AU, ARG, IL) and Better Days a 6 months project in India, in association with Better Days magazine, Times Now and Facebook, releasing 6 episodes about inspiring local people. With +500k views on the internet, screened in 4 int festivals (IN, RU, UK, US)* 

Together with Eva Cesarova (CZ), board member of Saravá Foundation, founder of Czech Republic Psychedelic Society and Global Psychedelic Society, she organizes psychedelic events and is a media representative of psychedelic research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).**

And Francisco Rivarola (ARG), Co-Founder of Sunflower Sutras, a platform documenting and researching conciousness exploration and Indigenous knowledge systems. Francisco is a mindfulness instructor interested in the synergy between contemplative practices and entheogenic work, and has been working with plant medicines for the past 5 years, learning from different masters and Indigenous communities in South America. 

Expanded team

Composed by an international network of professionals that have been working with Indigenous communities for 5 to 10 years on average, including anthropologists, filmmakers, researchers and artists with a deep commitment to serve these communities and honor their traditions and wisdom. 

Our Crew

7 people traveling : 2 filmmakers, 1 sound, 1 photo, 2 producers, 1 Indigenous relationship
5 people on remot support: 1 anthropologist, 1 producer, 1 designer, 1 social media, 1 lawyer
4 post-production: 1 Editor, 1 Color correction, 1 sound design, 1 sound mix

Links 🔗

Living Libraries Deck 

Eskawata - film 

Our pool of projects with Indigenous Communities

Blockchain X Living Libraries

FlorestaTV

Mycelia Sponsoring (🍄,🟢)

Mycelia is an independent project supporting the connection of Indigenous Public Goods (IPGs) to Web3 technologies and platforms such as Gitcoin, with reflection on the Indigenous sovereignty in the Cyberspace in a context of decolonisation.

IPGs are public goods provided by Indigenous Peoples and allies such as cultural diversity, ecological knowledge, biodiversity conservation, social and community values, medicine knowledge, ancestral wisdom, native education, languages which go beyond the borders of their communities to have a global impact on the well-being of humanity.

Living Libraries - Wisdom A.LIVE History

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