Tuesday, March 3
The Owl, the Lake and the Occult
The other night in my sleep I thought I heard an owl. It was one of those nights when the dogs in the village (one of the real annoyances here) were barking like mad making it hard to sleep. The hoot sounded fake so I started getting paranoid. During our brief time here I've become aware that if an indiginous person comes to your house, they don't knock on the door but rather stand in the middle of the yard and make a bird noise to get your attention. In retrospect it's a nice peaceful way to announce one's presence but it's also a little spooky. So I heard the hoot and feeling a wee bit creeped out, got out of bed to investigate. It turned out to be just an owl but I remember thinking it was distinctive because I hadn't heard of owls living around Atitlan. I went back to sleep.
The following morning we took the girls to a brunch spot a short lancha ride away*. We ran into an acquaintance, Lee, who rented us our kayak. He proceeded to tell us that the day before, his wife and some friends had rescued a baby owl from the lake. The "baby" already had a 4 foot wing span and was 14 inches tall. It had been quite a struggle getting the owl out of the water. Lake Atitlan drops off rapidly from the shore so there are few places to wade in. (Although no one has actually measured the depth of the lake, which is a caldera, it is estimated to be at least 1000 metres deep in the centre).
Suffice to say that rescuing a young bird of prey from a deep lake in Guatemala is quite an emotional feat. The women (2 American and one Guatemalan) were worn out and not sure what to do with the bird who was still very much alive. In researching what to do, they learned something unexpected. In Mayan spirituality, the image of an owl in the water signifies a messenger from the underworld, a spector of death.
That night at about 9pm, two lanchas had a head on collision just beyond the bay of Santa Cruz la Laguna where the owl had been rescued. One man, a local, died in the accident. Also in Santa Cruz that night a mother lost her baby. (It turns out that neither lancha had lights, and the driver of one was wearing a walkman. Also, the indiginous are notoriously bad swimmers.)
The baby owl went to a local animal sanctuary the next day. As we become more entrenched in village life, it's hard not to become more mystically-minded about the bizarre things that happen here. On a more practical level, next time we take a lancha, the girls twill wear life-jackets.
* Lanchas are local water taxis, and really the only way to get around the lake (apart from the tuk-tuks which will do if you only need to go to the next town). One mafia family controls all the lanchas on this side of the lake. A few years ago someone told me that another family tried to set up a competing lancha company. He was found danngling from a tree. Needless to say these boats (which seat about 12 but are usually maxed out at 20) have a dodgy safety record. All the Mayan boys around the lake aspire to be lancheros, who all wear slicked back hair, gold chains and impressive-looking belt buckles.
Arusi - a film by Marjan Tehrani (coming soon on PBS!)
You are invited to a NY sneak peak screening of ARUSI PERSIAN WEDDING sponsored by ARTE EAST AND PBS before the March 17th broadcast on Independent Lens.PLEASE SAVE THE DATE AND PASS ALONG THE INFO TO PEOPLE YOU KNOW:
MARCH 4th AT 7:30 PM
NYU CANTOR FILM CENTER, NYU
36 EAST 8TH STREET
NY NY 10003
212 998 4100
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
CO-SPOSORED BY WOMEN MAKE MOVIES
Arusi Persian Wedding chronicles Tehrani’s brother’s journey to Iran, their father’s birthplace, as he travels with his American wife to hold a traditional Persian wedding ceremony and explore his lost heritage. Weaving the young couple’s personal story with historical footage that illuminates the complex history of America’s relationship with Iran, Arusi Persian Wedding goes behind the curtain of political tension to offer a rare glimpse of both modern and traditional Iran.
Born in America and raised by their Iranian father and American Jewish mother, Tehrani and her brother, Alex, grew up during the Iranian Islamic Revolution, when the Shah was expelled and anti-American sentiment exploded, resulting in the infamous hostage crisis of 1979 and setting in motion decades of miscommunication, threats and vitriol between the American and Iranian governments. With a foot in each culture, Marjan and Alex grew up feeling alienated from both cultures, not really at home in either. Through this very personal story, Arusi Persian Wedding explores the complex and troubled relationship between America, the country of Marjan and Alex’s birth, and Iran, the country of their heritage.
Arusi Persian Wedding will have its broadcast premiere on Tuesday, March 17, 2009, at 10 PM (check local listings) as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard.
Followed by a discussion with director Marjan Tehrani and moderated by Debbie Zimmerman (Executive Director, Women Make Movies).
To learn more about the film and the issues, visit the companion website at pbs.org/independentlens/arusipersianwedding/
Please spread the word!
TRU FILMS
WWW.TRUFILMS.COM
FILM DISTRIBUTION: WWW.WMM.COM
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