Film Screening:

El abrazo de la serpiente / The Embrace of the Serpent

(Ciro Guerra, 2015, 125 min, Colombia, in Spanish w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD)

-- Reception starts at 6:00pm in the lobby below Love Auditorium, called the "Hall of Science", in the Levine Science Research Center (LSRC), West Campus

-- Film screening starts at 6:30pm in Love Auditorium

-- Panel discussion on Amazonian Conservation to follow!

-- Parking available in the Bryan Center parking garage

The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. He travels with two scientists, German Theodor Koch-Grunberg and American Richard Evans Schultes, to look for the rare yakruna, a sacred plant. The film is loosely inspired by the diaries written by the two scientists during their field work in the Amazon.

-- Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards!

"A visually mesmerizing exploration of man, nature and the destructive powers of colonialism, Embrace of the Serpent marks an impressively realized third feature from Colombian writer-director Ciro Guerra, featuring knockout black-and-white cinematography and an array of breathtaking locations." -- Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter 

Cost: Free and open to the public

Sponsors: The Duke-UNC Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Tropical Conservation Initiative at Duke University.