When I first screened Flowers in the Dessert (Flores en el Desierto), I enjoyed watching the Wixáritari people (a.k.a Huicholes) as they are colourful and fascinating. My television, however, did not do the film justice as the theatre screen did. The film has great cinematography, great sounds, great camera angles and great colours. As director, Jose Alvarez said in the Q&A session last night, the Wixáritari is a complicated culture but their ceremonies and customs lend themselves nicely to the camera; they are cinematic. Alvarez described their beliefs as being “very internal, not visual” and this may be difficult to understand at first but by spending time with them, the crew learned more about them and were able to put something together to share with the world.
Hot Docs 2010 – Flowers in the Dessert: A Cultural Exploration
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This is primarily the reason for the film. The Huicholes want to document their cultural rituals for their descendants but they also want to share their culture with the world. In turn, Alvarez explained, they hope people will buy more of their arts and crafts, as this would fund their yearly pilgrimages in order to maintain their traditions. The belief of the Wixáritari people is that by having various ceremonies and offering various sacrifices that lead to their peyote pilgrimage, balance is maintained in this world. This film makes a good effort in showing us this even if it’s not fully explained in words… The footage of the elder (one of the Marakames) explaining how the sea foam is like clouds from the sky comes to mind. There are many other such scenes that show us the depth of this culture.
On a different note, someone asked about the Huicholes’ reaction to the film. Alvarez said they liked it for the most part. The one part they did not fully understand was the sped up footage of the drumming ceremony and others because they felt the faster speed did not showcase the ceremonies very well. Alvarez and crew felt they had to speed things up a bit because there were far too many ceremonies to show them all fully but they still wanted to include as much footage as possible. Alvarez also described how difficult it was to film the deer hunt, as they were moving quite fast in the dark, in an area that had many highs and lows. Some of the footage was actually shot by the Huicholes themselves.
The Wixáritari people are vastly interesting, for this reason alone, I suggest seeing this film. Alvarez and crew have put together a film that is cinematic and at the same time, thoughtful and respectful of the Wixáritari culture. This documentary plays again Sunday, May 9th at 7pm.
