ABOUT THE FILM
Celebrated performer, choreographer and artist Santee Smith interprets traditional Iroquois legends through contemporary dance in a cinematic restaging of her 2004 award-winning debut production KAHA:WI : THE CYCLE OF LIFE. In this touching documentary, a gorgeous and transformative performance is translated effortlessly to the screen, telling us of sacred portals between the Sky World, the Earth World and the Under World. KAHA:WI is a performance film that perpetuates Iroquoian cultural knowledge, traditional esthetics and expression in a contemporary form. KAHA:WI opens with an awakening of the spirit, or unseen life force, that manifests into human form. This establishes the spiritual presence that permeates throughout KAHA:WI. A thanksgiving prayer is given to all the living beings in the natural world. Iroquois people call themselves Onkwehon:we… Real People, meaning real physically. That is a distinction from spirit people. There is a concept of duality between this dimension and that dimension. We live in a world where things are real, but the universe has other dimensions. The unseen is beyond our comprehension, yet we need to communicate with the unseen, some people call that spirit. The human spirit possesses an umbilical connection to the spirit world.
KAHA:WI is a performance film that perpetuates Iroquoian cultural knowledge, traditional esthetics and expression in a contemporary form.
Source: https://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/kahawi-the-cycle-of-life/
Film Website: http://www.kahawi.tv/
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