 What is Uvatiarru?
Most of us perceive time as something linear that we move or progress through from start to finish. The Inuit believe that time moves through us in a repeating and cyclical fashion; from this they have the word Uvatiarru, meaning both “in the past” and “in the future” at the same time. There are truths that are revealed in the passage of time, and when they are forgotten, the are discovered again on the next cycle.
Rites of the body are humanity’s earliest known form of communication with each other and with the spirit world — as far back as 30,000 years we see everything from simple tattooing to rituals involving amputation of digits by shaman. Over the past 500 years we humans have done our best to mask and even expunge these primal voices, but they can not be silenced because they are who we are. Our bodies are vessels for these acts; we are designed, by hand of god or by hand of fate, to use our bodies to be the voice of the universe.
All over this world people are responding to a growing feeling inside them, each in their own way and with their own dance, but driven by the same underlying unifying heartbeat. Some dance with a heritage and guidance, but most don’t know the names for the passions that drive them. A wind gathers in them and around them and we’re watching it sweep through the world as we finally realize that the ultimate purpose of billions of unique puzzle pieces in different shapes and colors is to, through the strength of their differences, complete the puzzle that tells us who we are and what we are here to do.
The movie Uvatiarru attempts to take a picture of this storm.
Shot on location in over a dozen countries with hundreds performance artists, social deviants, and modern shaman, Uvatiarru is the result of over ten years of preparation and filming by Shannon Larratt and BMEzine.com. The film features amazing travel and performances including all manner of body modification, suspension, piercings, body part removals and reshapings, fireplay, astral travel, and adventure.
Uvatiarru is “coming soon”. As of Summer 2005 we are filming our final scenes and the movie is in the editing stage. Anticipated limited theatrical, festival, and DVD release is for May 2006.
Until then you can watch the trailers.
Shannon Larratt
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