Private Project

Yuyos

"Yuyos are all spontaneous plants that can be medicinal or simple herbs. There are yuyos that can be toxic and other that are beneficial for health."
In Colonia Luz Bella, Paraguay, two researchers live with the peasant family Franco Gauto to document their ethnobotanical knowledge in relation to their daily life.
Born to recover the natural medicine’s heritage of one family involved with agroecology, the ethnographic film speaks for a whole community in cohabitation with deforestation.
In a context of familiar sharing, eased by the social beverage of tereré, yuyos become narrative agents of stories of commitment and eco-resistance.

  • Michal Krawczyk
    Director
  • Michał Krawczyk and Giulia Lepori
    Writer
  • Michał Krawczyk and Giulia Lepori
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 10 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 1, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    3,500 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Paraguay
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • Festival Internacional de Cine de la Patagonia: Tierra, Mujer, Hombre
    Ciudad de Trelew
    Argentina
    September 30, 2018
    South American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World
    Santiago de Compostela
    Spain
    April 26, 2019
  • "Evolving the Forest" Conference of the Royal Forestry Society
    Dartington Hall, Devon
    United Kingdom
    June 21, 2019
  • LASA Latin American Studies Association Film Festival
    Boston
    United States
    May 24, 2019
  • CinemAmbiente
    Avezzano
    Italy
    March 26, 2019
  • Smaragdni Eco Film Festival

    Croatia
    June 21, 2019
  • Eyes and Lenses Ethnographic Film Festival
    Warsaw
    Poland
    June 7, 2019
  • Tulum World Environment Film Festival
    Tulum
    Mexico
    July 21, 2019
  • Kratovo Ethnological Film Festival
    Kratovo
    Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
    September 27, 2019
  • Festival Internazionale Cinematografico sulle Foreste
    Bergamo
    Italy
  • Intimalente / Visual Ethnographic Film Festival
    Caserta
    Italy
    December 20, 2019
  • Firenze Archeofilm / Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Archeologia Arte Ambiente
    Firenze
    Italy
    March 14, 2020
Director Biography - Michal Krawczyk

Michal Krawczyk (Poland) and Giulia Lepori (Italy) are PhD researchers in the field of Environmental Humanities, respectively anthropology and literature, at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia).
In 2016 they organised their independent research project 'Echoes of Ecologies', in South America, which involved recounting practices of sustainability in the homonymous 3-language photo-narrative blog.
In 2017 they went back to Paraguay to document the ethnobotanical knowledge of one visited family, to create an empowerment media that could recollect a fragment of local life interwoven with the global. 'Yuyos' is their first feature ethnographic film - independent and self-produced.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

'Yuyos' is an ethnographic project lived together with the peasant family Franco Gauto, in Colonia Luz Bella, Paraguay. The film documents their everyday life in relation to their ethnobotanical knowledge. By revealing the cultural importance attributed to medicinal plants, the protagonists enlighten their idea of agroecology as a way to face current ecological issues and crisis. As a matter of fact, Luz Bella’s community is socioenvironmentally at stake due to continuous deforestation to make room for industrial plantations and pastures. These not only threaten biodiversity – directly influencing the access to yuyos -, they also determine a notable cultural loss.

For more information, please visit our archive blog: https://echoesofecologies.noblogs.org/