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.
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Michal KrawczykDirector
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Michał Krawczyk and Giulia LeporiWriter
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Michał Krawczyk and Giulia LeporiProducer
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 10 minutes
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Completion Date:August 1, 2018
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Production Budget:3,500 EUR
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Country of Origin:Italy
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Country of Filming:Paraguay
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Language:Spanish
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:Yes
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Festival Internacional de Cine de la Patagonia: Tierra, Mujer, HombreCiudad de Trelew
Argentina
September 30, 2018
South American Premiere
Official Selection -
Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming WorldSantiago de Compostela
Spain
April 26, 2019 -
"Evolving the Forest" Conference of the Royal Forestry SocietyDartington Hall, Devon
United Kingdom
June 21, 2019 -
LASA Latin American Studies Association Film FestivalBoston
United States
May 24, 2019 -
CinemAmbienteAvezzano
Italy
March 26, 2019 -
Smaragdni Eco Film Festival
Croatia
June 21, 2019 -
Eyes and Lenses Ethnographic Film FestivalWarsaw
Poland
June 7, 2019 -
Tulum World Environment Film FestivalTulum
Mexico
July 21, 2019 -
Kratovo Ethnological Film FestivalKratovo
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
September 27, 2019 -
Festival Internazionale Cinematografico sulle ForesteBergamo
Italy -
Intimalente / Visual Ethnographic Film FestivalCaserta
Italy
December 20, 2019 -
Firenze Archeofilm / Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Archeologia Arte AmbienteFirenze
Italy
March 14, 2020
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.
'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/