SAPI End of Year Fundraiser - Embrace of the Serpent Film

SAPI End of Year Fundraiser - Embrace of the Serpent film

Come join us for a special night at The Roxy Cinema to celebrate a wonderful first year for the Student Association of Psychedelic Investigation at our end of year fundraiser featuring a screening of the international award winning film; Embrace of the Serpent (El Abrazo del Serpiente). There will also be a fun-filled psychedelic raffle on the night. This event welcomes people from all backgrounds, whether you are familiar with the Amazon and psychedelics, or just curious to learn!

Embrace of the Serpent

A breathtaking ethnographic odyssey through the heart of the Colombian Amazon, Embrace of the Serpent is the epic story of the complex relationships between Karamakate, an amazonian healer, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, become the first foreigners to travel the Northwest Amazon in search of a sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.

With nine different languages spoken during the course of the film, this hypnotic meditation on the beauty of nature and effects of colonialism is presented with an uncommon sense of curiosity rarely seen. The crisp black and white photography captures the extraordinary landscapes with a haunting, almost mythical sense of wonder, while the balance between documentary-style realism and dreamlike mysticism makes for a truly poetic cinematic experience.

The healer Karmakate’s peregrinations are based on actual trips documented by two explorers, German ethnographer Theodor Koch-Grunberg, who visited in 1911, and North American etnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who followed in his footsteps with Koch-Grunberg’s journals for a guide, three decades later.

The film will be subtitled. The Embrace of the Serpent won 14 international film awards and was shown in a range of film festivals around the world from Cannes to the New Zealand International Film Festival.

Watch the trailer here:

We are excited to bring this wonderful film back, celebrate a successful year for the Student Association of Psychedelic Investigation, and look forward to the future! Proceeds from this event will go towards fundraising for future SAPI projects and events as we seek to increase education about responsible psychedelic investigation and broaden the voices heard in current psychedelic dialogues.

If you would like to join the Student Association of Psychedelic Investigation email us at [email protected], and we'll add you to our list!

“Just a few minutes in, the viewer is entirely submerged in this fantastical, quasi-mythical, soul-crushing yet often very funny story… None of the arduousness behind-the-scenes shows in the final film, which unfolds with a stunning directorial sureness and a layered intelligence that at times lands an insight so wincingly wise and true it takes your breath away.” — Jessica Kiang, The Playlist

Host or Publisher Student Association of Psychedelic Investigation