A journey into the heart of the world with the Arhuaco Community

The Arhuacos are the guardians of the forest and the ice of Colombia’s highest mountain – the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. They draw from this unique environment a sustained and singular spirituality. For the first time in their history the Arhuacos invited a filmmaker, Alexander Hick, to visit the most remote communities and sacred sites in the heartland of their territory. „Thinking like a Mountain“ tells the story of resistance and preservation of nature, which is a voyage through space and time: from the shores of the Caribbean to the stars that light up the night on the glacier; from the Arhuacos encounter with the first colonising whites, to the homecoming of an Arhuaco guerrillero following the laying-down of arms by the FARC.

Thinking like a Mountain is a stunning documentary about the Arhuaco indigenous community who live on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Colombia. They struggle to protect their sacred wisdom and their mountain from the aggression of imperialism and religious conversion and industrialization and war. They are the guardians of their forest and the summits of rock and ice. A voyage through space and time. Some of the wisdom I witnessed with gratitude: The earth is a part of our body – we can’t harm it, for we harm ourselves. At night they dream they become a bat so they can listen to bird songs and make predictions about the future. What do you become at night? Do you take your cues about tomorrow from the songs of birds? They call water HER and talk with respect and deep admiration about how there’s so much to learn from HER and to protect and be protected. Water – Her: This most precious element we all need to survive. This film, the restraint and respect in which it was made; the tender visual poetry and music and sound moved me very deeply. Our earth and some of the last humans living out this wisdom of oneness with all life is disappearing so fast from our planet we are about to lose them all. And with that I fear the earth may fold in on herself and collapse from sheer heartbreak and sorrow that there is no one left that Sees Her. This is the cost of consumption and human greed. I am so grateful to FICCI Festival for screening this brilliant work. Directed by Alexander Hick “These rocks are their resistance.” Lindsay Branham - Founder Novo Film

Alexander Hick studied Fine Arts with Prof. Kosuth in Munich and in Barcelona and Documentary Films in Munich (HFF) and Mexico City (CCC). He is IFMGA certified mountain guide and cofounded Flipping the Coin, a Berlin based artist collective. “Thinking Like a Mountain” is his second feature documentary.

Awards

The film was included in international competitions at Vision du Reel (Switzerland), DOK.fest (Germany), Max Ophüls Film Festival (Germany), Autrans Film Festival (France), or Astra Film Festival (Romania). In 2019 it was nominated for “Excellence in Visual Anthropology (EVA)” award at EthnoCineca in Austria.

Admission charges for members of Ponrepo:
· CZK 50
· Students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and children under 15: CZK 40

General Admittance
· CZK 80 Kč
· Students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and children under 15: CZK 70

The series of screenings Symbiont: The stories of transforming mutualism has been organized in collaboration with Anthropictures and Cinema Ponrepo and has been curated by social anthropologist Pavel Borecký.