In her quest to explore the healing powers of plants, an American herbalist ventures into the rainforest of Belize where she befriends one of the last remaining Maya shamans, Don Elijo Panti. While learning his secrets during her apprenticeship, she unearths her life's work: to preserve this ancient knowledge and to bridge the gap between science and traditional healing wisdom. Funded by the National Cancer Institute in New York, Rosita Arvigo is in a race against time, scouring the tropical rainforests of Central America in search of cures for many deadly diseases before they are wiped out by deforestation.

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Length: 20 min. Country: Belize, USA Language: English Producer: Guido Verweyen and Eva Langsdorff Distributor: Documentary Educational Resources

Festival Screenings and Awards:

Previously Screened At: DOCtober, 2001;
Slamdance Film Festival, Utah, 2002;
Palm Springs Native American Film Festival, 2002;
Academy Foundations Screening Series, UCLA, 2002;
Battleboro Environmental Film Festival, Vermont, 2003;
Big Bear International Film Festival, 2003; Latino Film Festival, San Francisco, 2003
Telly Award: Kineon International Festival of Archaeological Film, Brussels, 2002
Best of Show: Platinum Aurora Award Winner, 2003
International Sasa Award: Environmental Film Festival, Italy, 2003