Spirit Doctors

Description

With a lifetime of experience in the ways of Native spirituality, Mary and Ed Louie are steadfastly committed to the practices that keep them accountable to the spirit world, their people, and mother earth. In Spirit Doctors, filmmaker Marie Burke journeys into their spiritual world of traditional Native medicine. In a twist of fate, sound recordist Don Howell is unexpectedly diagnosed with throat cancer during the filming process. He chooses to be treated with modern medicine and for the first time seeks spiritual guidance and healing from Mary and Ed Louie. Though many healing practices and ceremonies are considered too sacred to be filmed, Mary and Ed decide to allow Don's doctoring to be recorded for the purposes of teaching others. From the lush Similkameen Valley of the interior to the cityscapes of Vancouver, British Columbia, Burke reveals a beautiful way of life rarely seen and explores the ongoing debate around the ethics of documenting such sacred ceremonial knowledge.

Runtime

40 min

Subjects

Genre

Date of Publication

[2013], c2005

Database

Films on Demand

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