The Film

Path of the Dwarfs is a documentary on ayahuasca, a powerful and mysterious psycho-tropic drug unique to the Amazonian region. Specifically, our story centers in and around Iquitos, Peru, a city so remotely nestled in the heart of the Amazon that it is only accessible by boat or plane.

Here, we will see how this strange drug affects both tourists who make this pilgrimage, and those natives whose lives are affected by their and its presence. Through interviews, we see the multitude of perspectives and backgrounds of those who’ve tried the drug, from spiritual hippies to successful businessmen. On the other side of the coin, we discuss the phenomenon with a variety of locals, from priests to politicians to the average city dweller.

Finally, however, the camera will center primarily on the ayahuasqueros themselves, the shamans who make and administer this magical mixture, as well as other curanderos, or healers, who don’t brew ayahuasca but other mixtures. We will pass from one curandero to the next, each of their stories bringing us away from Iquitos and deeper and deeper physically and metaphorically into the mystic winding depths of the rainforest.

We begin with Ron Wheelock, a reputed ayahuasquero who lives on the outskirts of Iquitos, then travel next to Claire Mataira, also a foreigner and one of the few female ayahuasqueros around. Next we encounter Dr. Jose Aranda, head surgeon of Iquitos’ Institute for Traditional Medicine, who aims to infuse modern medicine with traditional knowledge.

We continue up the Amazon to Tamshyiacu, where we meet the highly pragmatic Don Pedro Guerra, a curandero who is very critical of ayahuasca. In radical contrast we transition next to the deeply spiritual Wolfgang Himmelbauer, who infuses a theologian sensibility to ayahuasca use. Like Ron and Claire, he studied under Don Augustin Rivas, our next interviewee. A local celebrity who is the most reputed ayahuasquero, he is also an adept showman.

Finally we travel into the thick of the rainforest and encounter the Urarina, a local tribe that traditionally worships an ayahuasca God but has sadly lost many of its traditions and lives in abject conditions with little hope of improving its circumstances.

At our journey’s end, with this strange cast of characters we will have discussed the social, political and economic consequences of ayahuasca, a drug whose potential for great profit can lead to tremendous danger if poorly administered, understood, and regulated.

We will have also delved into the cultural, medicinal, and especially spiritual complexities of ayahuasca, which continues despite criticism to be a great source of emotional and psychological uplifting and revelation.

Finally, all this mystery surrounding the mysticism of ayahuasca is examined through the lens of the rainforest, itself an inspiring source of sublime beauty.