About
A healer on healing, medicine & religion...Filmed in the modern city of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, Uncle Poison is an intimate portrait of a traditional faith healer, set against the backdrop of his community's Easter celebrations.
Every day, Benito Reyes receives people at his house looking for all sorts of cures. Through his own testimony, this documentary looks at the healer's role as mediator between the social, natural and spiritual worlds. Curing someone or harvesting medicinal leaves, he must first seek permission from the plants he uses and from a variety of Saints.
Like some plants and spirits, Benito has the power to extract the sickness and spells from his patients. A conjunction of sacred and profane, celebrating and mourning, Easter provides a rare opportunity to look at traditional faith healing in a wider social and religious context. The film suggests an underlying cultural rationale behind a broad spectrum of apparently contradictory health-related practices, where man and the environment are inextricably linked.
Credits
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, 2001
International Festival of Ethnographic Film, RAI - SOAS London, 2000
Gottingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2000
AAA Annual Meeting. Society for Visual Anthropology. Chicago, USA, 2001
Mostra Etnografica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The 19th International Nordic Anthropological Film Festival Arhus, Denmark
Tel Aviv Documentary Film Festival, University of Tel Aviv
Society For Latin American Studies, Annual Meeting
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology