Educational Media Reviews Online

Dr. Mark Plotkin, a Harvard ethnobotanist, has attempted to document the shaman’s knowledge of natural herbs and plants for healing in Suriname, a remote region of South America. The medicine men in this Amazon rain forest have passed down their methods of natural healing for generations and Plotkin is recording and learning their skills in order to preserve them. The disappearing culture and people of the Amazon rainforest are also profiled. Shamanism and the medical use of plants are shown as a system parallel to mainstream medicine and the similarities between treatments used in the Amazon and those in Western medicine are noted.

Using poetry and narration by Susan Sarandon, this documentary is made visually beautiful with many dissolves and music – in fact this technique is a tad overused. Interspersed with first-person narrative by Plotkin, who had to gain acceptance by the head shaman, his concern for preservation of the rain forest is made abundantly clear.

Shamans have much to teach us and Plotkin has certainly contributed a lot to transferring and preserving this knowledge Recommended for academic ecology, botany, Latin American Studies or public library.