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[Tannoy announcement] Welcome to The Encounter
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Please test the headphones on the back of your seat to see that they are working
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You will not be able to hear the show if your headphones are not working
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You will now hear a voice in the left ear of your headphones
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You should now hear my voice in the left ear of your headphones
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You will now hear a voice in the right ear of your headphones
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You should now hear my voice in the right ear of your headphones
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If these voices are in the wrong ears please turn your headphones around
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You will not be able to hear the show if your headphones are not working properly
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Good evening
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and welcome to tonight's live stream performance of The Encounter
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brought to you from the Barbican Theatre in London directly into your homes
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My name is Simon McBurney
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I'm going to be actually performing in a few minutes
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I'm going to be leaving this auditorium, you'll see me coming on stage left in just a second
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but I'm just getting a feel for the place, the people who are here and wanted to welcome you the auditorium
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I think particularly in these days we have to be very careful
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about believing what we see and hear
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because, in fact, this performance was recorded four years ago in March 2016
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and it is, in fact, May 2020
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it would be illegal to be in this theatre right now, because we are in the middle of a global pandemic
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of COVID-19 and we are all, I am, you are, we are all confined at home
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isolated
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Welcome to my home and wherever you are in your homes
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Golly, yeah, different times
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It's four years since we created this show
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and so much has changed hasn't it
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It's incredible and, of course, the show itself did not remain static but became something utterly different
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as we performed it in the following years
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scenes went in, others came out
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however, this is the only recording we have, this is the one we will be watching tonight
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even though some of it is not quite as I want it
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so, what you are watching is, in a sense, the beginning of the creative process, not what it finally became
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and, in a way, that links to where we are now, doesn't it
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I mean in this way, because surely in this period of confinement, we're not just asking 'When will it end?'
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but also, 'How are we going to begin again?'
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In some ways during this time we seem to have gone back in time [door creaks]
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I'm very conscious of the fact that
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that when I created the show my daughter was five
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I wasn't five I was six
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and now, she's ten
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I'm not ten, I'm eleven
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eleven, 'hello'!
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And, in a way, while I'm thinking about the beginning I'm thinking about her beginning
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'Are you listening to me?'
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He's not listening to me
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[Door creaks]
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I know, unfortunately he's not very good at listening
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but, in fact, we are not there for him
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'Do you understand what I mean?'
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Not really
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We're not in his conscious mind, we're in his subconscious
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So, we're standing back from the thing that makes him do things
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I mean, if we want him to go we can get him to go
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So just think go, go, go on go
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You see, there he goes
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and I think that's quite good because I think that everybody at home actually really wants to see the show
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but, before you go, ladies and gentlemen
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we're at home, you're at home, but please don't forget
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if you haven't got headphones you need to go and get them now
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otherwise you won't be able to hear anything
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I'm coming onto the stage, we'd better go
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the show's about to start, so I'm just coming on stage left, here we go
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Ladies and gents, we're just still waiting for some people to come in.
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Apparently the bars are more attractive than the theatre.
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If you could please, while we're waiting, turn these off.
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Because if they are on, they will interfere with the system.
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And in fact someone was discovered with one last night.
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So my daughter, while we're waiting, we're still waiting for somebody to come in here,
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while we're waiting, my daughter who is six, well nearly seven,
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she objects very much to the fact that I'm not there for story time
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and doesn't really believe that I'm in the theatre.
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So I'm just going to take a photograph and send it to her.
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I'm the only one that's allowed to have theirs on by the way, so I can send that,
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thank you very much, yes you can wave if you like
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people, anyone, yes, that's lovely, great.
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I love the way people wave out here, when in fact that's all I've got in my
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I was just looking at my photographs here, when I was waiting for whoever it is to come
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in from the bar
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and I was realising, these are photographs of my children,
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there are more photographs here on this thing of my children then there are of all of my
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childhood
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and my adolescence combined.
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That's just in the last ten days of my children.
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It's kind of a responsibility really and yet I realise there's probably more pictures on
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one page of this of my children,
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than there are of my father and the whole of his childhood and there are videos and
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so on.
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I don't have any videos, I'm of the age - let's see if there's enough white hair here,
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I'm of the age of Super Eight, do you remember that? Wonderful sound in the sitting room
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afterwards [fluttering]
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Unfortunately we lost all our Super Eight, although we did find one the other day.
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A couple of years ago I had it transferred to video and then we lost the original,
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So this is a very precious thing to me because it's the only visual image I have captured
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of my father walking.
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It's not backed up or anything, I'll show it you later in the show
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but I mean the sense of this responsibility that I feel is, you know that they'll look
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at this later, my children
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and go that's the story of our lives. It's not their lives. It is a story but I'm worried
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they're going to mistake it
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for reality, for the real thing. I do tend to do going for breakfast, going out the door,
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you know
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but then on the other hand we're always mistaking stories for reality, aren't we?
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There's about 600 people here. You're all agreed on the story that there is something
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called half past seven
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and that you arrive here. Well most of you. There's still a few seats that obviously haven't
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agreed on that
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It is, the difference between reality and fiction is very difficult to separate.
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Two people that don't know each other, for example, can go away and fight and die for
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a flag, for a language
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because they both believe in the existence of something called the United Kingdom of
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Great Britain.
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It doesn't exist outside our common imaginations. Two lawyers can go and defend somebody.
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They don't know each other. They don't know the defendant because they all believe in
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the existence of
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law, justice, human rights but none of these things exist outside our common imaginations
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and I suppose this gives me, this does worry me, obviously I can edit their lives
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but also the stories that happen today are shaping their future
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and they're very young. Jeremy Hunt is giving us stories that are shaping the future.
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But more than that, that's a specific example but you know the question of the earth we
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live in,
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I get passionate, I get worried that. Oh god. The typical live stream disaster.
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Some of you probably realise that's not real either, that's a gag that I've been practicing
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for some time
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and the real video, which I will show you, is here.
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But we are constantly mistaking what it is we think to be real and what is in fact a
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story
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and I am going to tell you a real story tonight. Whatever that means but stories have a real
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function.
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I remember when I was little and I lay in bed and my father would read me stories
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that's when I first understood that whatever it is that is going on inside my head
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is also going on inside the head of somebody else. This thing that I call my consciousness.
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I would enter into the consciousness of the protagonist and understood there are other
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people.
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My children lie either side of me in bed. I'm sure many of you have had this experience
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I'm reading them a book, a children's book, and then they look at the pictures and they
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say 'that's me! That's me!'
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And so I feel there is a very powerful relationship between empathy and proximity
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and I would like to get closer to you now, so if you will put on your headphones.
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The marvellous thing right now, of course, it means I don't have to shout anymore.
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So here I am. Somewhere in the middle of your head instead of shouting at you.
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Okay, I'm just going to check your headphones and Helen is going to put us in your right
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ear.
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Now I'm going to take a walk across this 2.6 pounds of electrified pate that we call our
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brain.
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I now should be somewhere in your left ear. Now if I'm not in your left ear, take them
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off and turn them round so I am.
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Otherwise the whole thing would be back to front.
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Okay now we'll come back to the seat of your consciousness, somewhere behind your frontal
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lobes.
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Of course I'm not behind your frontal lobes but you feel as if I am.
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In fact my voice is being broken up into little bits, it's flying through the air, it's being
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reassembled,
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it's going down the tubes, air is being moved
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and you have the impression that I really am somewhere in your head.
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But of course it's nothing but a technological trick
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technological trick [looped]
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Such as that repetition. I'm not repeating anything, that's just a looping peddle.
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Another technological trick, right underneath my desk.
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I'm just going to use another technological trick by going across on to this microphone.
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Now I'm going to change my voice. It's going to go down in pitch.
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So having be up high at a tenor, suddenly it's coming all the way down to here
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[American accent] and for some reason I want to speak with an American accent
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it feels. It's not because it's sleazy. It's no value judgements about Americans. My father
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was American
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but the point is the protagonist, the man who is at the centre of this story, Loren
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McIntyre,
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this is his voice.
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The story takes place in 1969 but as you watch and listen to the voice, the brain rapidly
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adjusts
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and now, in fact, you associate this voice with what you're seeing in front of you,
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so much so that if I go on the other microphone
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[back to normal accent] I suddenly sound like Mickey Mouse.
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If I go away from the microphone of course you can't hear me.
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That's because this microphone doesn't register space
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but if I walk over here what will happen is you'll suddenly hear me in a different way
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because this is a microphone that registers space.
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This is a binaural head, made by Sennheiser. That's not product placement by the way.
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Here it is. This is your right ear and this is your left ear and you can hear me going
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from side to side.
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For you that's a little difficult. I'll align it to make it easier for you.
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There you go. Now that's to your left ear and this one. I'm now walking round you.
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Now in order to really sense what this does, what I would like you to do and at home if
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you're watching,
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please, is to shut your eyes. Okay nothing nasty is going to happen. I promise you. Nothing
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nasty.
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Okay so shut your eyes and now of course you can hear me somewhere behind your left ear
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approximately.
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I'm a little thirsty, I'm just going to have something to drink. Excuse me [drinking sounds]
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A little too intimate. Hang on.
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And the amazing thing about the brain is the adjustment, it thinks I'm behind your right
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ear
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but if I were to blow in your right ear, your brain would imagine or think that I really
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am blowing
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and the ear becomes hot because that's what the brain tells it to do.
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Listen, try this [blows gasps of air into microphone]
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Oh god, I've got one of your hairs in my mouth and I'm just going to cut it off.
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There you go, I'll cut that. I'll give you a haircut [scissors cutting]
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Cutting round the back of you. Snip that little, right at the top of that
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[buzzing] Oh god what's that? I don't believe it it's a mosquito. It's a mosquito in the
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Barbican
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and if you open your eyes it's not a mosquito, it's a recording.
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In fact it's not even the recording of a mosquito, it's just a comb and some grease proof paper.
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But your mind will give you the image of the fly, necessarily, that's how human brains
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work.
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But of course this is nothing but a speaker
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and it looks a little bit like a Budweiser can but it's not, it's a very weird kind of
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speaker
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and in fact I haven't been speaking for some time but you have assumed that I have
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and that I really have been speaking in front of you but I've been miming my words and he's
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been doing it.
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That really annoying sound. Could you
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Recording: So the whole thing is completely artificial.
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Simon: Can you turn that off? It's really annoying that comb and grease proof paper.
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Recording: What?
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Simon: Can you turn it off?
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Recording: You want me to turn it off?
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Simon: yeah please, thanks, we've had enough
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Okay so
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Recording: Is that better?
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Simon: Yeah that's a lot better
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Now, he doesn't exist, of course
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Recording: Well of course I exist
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Simon: Well, no you don't
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Recording: Well I'm in the present and you're in the future
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Simon: No I'm in the present and you're in the past, okay?
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Recording: Alright, okay I'm in the past. Shall we swap sides?
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Simon: Yeah we could do that. That's not going to affect causality because you're in the
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past, so that's ok.
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Recording: So what's going on?
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Simon: Well, it's the Barbican. We're live streaming it tonight. It's exciting.
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Recording: Should I be worried?
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Simon: Oh no I don't think so, everything is fine so far.
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Recording: How many are there?
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Simon: Well, 600 and apparently, last time we saw, about 2000 online
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Recording: Are they enjoying it?
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Simon: Well, yeah, they got a bit hysterical with the ear, but other than that you know everything
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seems to be fine
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Recording: I mean, what can I say?
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Simon: Well why don't you shut up, okay? Why don't you be quiet now and I'll-
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Recording: Since I'm now, clearly, somewhere in the past and don't really exist.
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Well actually I do because I think probably your past is more important to you than your
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present
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because I am in your past
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Simon: That's true. I mean is consciousness possible without memory? I don't think so.
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We are the sum total of our pasts
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and in fact this is a recording I made about six months ago in my flat,
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so you can hear the atmosphere of my flat, the space of it, if you like.
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My table is in fact there, just behind your head you can hear the London traffic [sound
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of traffic]
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and behind your right ear over here I have a little basin [sound of a tap]. That's it.
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So this is my home
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Noma: Daddy who are you talking to?
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Simon: That's my daughter. Nobody sweetie. I'm not talking to anyone
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Noma: Yes you are
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Simon: Yes I am in a way. I am
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Noma: But there's nobody there
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Simon: That's true, yeah that is true
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Noma: Daddy, how long is this head going to be in our house?
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Simon: I'm just recording you, while Mumma's away. I just wanted to get a few
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Noma: Where's Mumma?
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Simon: Mumma's gone on a Buddhist retreat, sweetie
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Noma: What's a Buddhist retreat?
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Simon: Well it's quite fun, people do lots of singing and have a lovely time
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This is actually a recording me and my daughter made about a year and a half a go
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when she was five. She's nearly seven now.
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So we're living three times if you like. This present time. Six months ago when I made that
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first recording
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and about a year and a half ago when I made the recording with my daughter.
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That's surely just a technological trick you say. But is it? Marcus thanks for waiting,
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do you want a cup of coffee?
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Marcus: I've already had one thanks
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Simon: I just wanted to ask you, our description of, our model of time, the way that we think
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about time.
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So we tend to think of it as one thing happening after another thing, like in our clock and
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so on
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Marcus: So I think our classical model of time, is a one dimensional line that we're
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all running along
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but there are other models of time where time is sort of two dimensional
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Simon: Blimey, does that mean you could have parallel times of the times running parallel
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to ours?
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Marcus: Yes certainly. I think physicists came up with a model of time where time isn't
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a sort of infinite line
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But is actually a circle. Which means, that in some ways you can go back to the beginning
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Simon: So I could actually start to correct-
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Marcus: We have this sense that events in time come one after the other
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and actually that is something of an illusion
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Simon: And you're listening to Marcus Du Sautoy, the Simonyi professor for the dissemination
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of scientific knowledge at Oxford
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who I talked to a couple of years ago, really, about time.
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Basically what he's saying is time itself is a fiction. We don't really know what it
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is
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There are so many different ideas as to what it is that in fact [phone ringing]
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Oh my god I'm so sorry. I did say I was the only one who was allowed to have it on
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Hang on, I'm sorry. I've got. Hello? Who is it?
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Rebecca, listen. I'm afraid I'm on stage.
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So of course, as you've guessed, that's also a recording.
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This is a telephone call I made with a woman called Rebecca Spooner,
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who works for an organisation called 'Survival International'
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which agitates for the rights of indigenous people all over the world
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and she is one of a number of people who actually I have on my phone.
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The writer, Petru Popescu, for example, is on my phone.
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But the majority of these people that I talked to in terms of making this piece are in my
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head
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[recorded voices play] they are a reservoir in my head and in fact, if you like, they
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form a kind of cacophony.
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In fact when we talk to anyone we have to reach into this reservoir and draw out of
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it something which is linear.
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One event after another in order to make sense of our lives in order to tell a story we want
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to tell.
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[Sound of a plane]
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Pilot: In two minutes we're going back, okay?
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Loren: So where's the village? If this is the area you saw the village, let's go on
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as long as we can
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Make sure it's at least still there
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Pilot: We can't go on for very much longer, okay?
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Loren: First find that village. Climb a little higher and see where we are
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Pilot: Okay
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[sound of plane]
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Pilot: I can't see it
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Oh there it is!
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Loren: Let's go over twice. Let's do it twice. They'll have seen planes before and know we're
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heading upstream
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[Sound of a plane]
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Simon: They were hurtling along over jungle treetops at a hundred miles an hour in a Cessna
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206 floatplane.
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The limit of their flying time was nine hours, of which four and a half had already elapsed.
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They were looking for somewhere to land. The river was their runway.
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But underneath the surface there were hidden logs.
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Pilot: It’s not safe. I know, but it’s not safe.
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Loren: Every minute of flight time is a day on foot remember
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Pilot: I know but I can't risk it
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Loren: You see that beach down there? Just there.
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Pilot: Okay, alright
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Loren: I'll set up camp there and you can pick me up in a few days
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Pilot: Here we go, okay hang on tight, gonna hit some water
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[Sound of water lapping]
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Simon: The pilot helped Loren McIntyre jump ashore into the shallows, handed him his waterproofed
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rubberised sacks
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and then the heat enveloped him like a fog.
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[Sound of a plane]
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The drone of the engine faded, Loren McIntyre was completely alone.
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400 miles of Amazonian jungle in every direction.
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400 miles from what he called civilisation.
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The looming forest projected an air of distrust as if it was watching him.
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He was used to it, he had been photographing in the Amazon rainforest for more than 25
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years.
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He took out his camera, his film, hung his hammock between two trees, high enough with
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his objects
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that if the river should rise over night everything was safe.
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Well rehearsed. Organised. Ritual. Looked back at the forest.
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[sound of a camera] Mahoganies. Cedars. Palo sangres [camera]
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Their wood so heavy it refused to float,
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so red it justified the name of blood trees.
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Huacapus – so hard that nails wouldn’t penetrate them.
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Sumaumas, and a giant lupunas tree – eight storeys high [camera]
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Known as river lighthouses because boatmen used them as landmarks.
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All these, and their retinue of parasites, bromeliads, vines, bark mushrooms, mosses,
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it all exuded a tense, febrile stillness, like a beast waiting to ambush its prey.
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He washed in the river, prepared a simple meal and as the light began to fade, he climbed
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into his hammock
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took out a pen and a notebook and began to write in an accurate, slightly slanting hand
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Loren: October 20th, 1969. Somewhere on the eastern bank of the Javari River.
364
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I’m here because of The Mayoruna. The cat people.
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Mayoruna. Mayoruna. What a mystery there is in names. How does a tribe come to name itself?
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How do words become formed; how do they think them up, combining certain sounds and not
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others?
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How did they choose which one they thought to be real?
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What they played with until habit and general acceptance confirmed them into the vocabulary.
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Mayoruna. In their language, it means people.
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Petru: He was incredible to be around, because he had a million stories that… most of them
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will not be made into anything.
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I mean, he had met people, he had been this, he had been that. He had travelled extensively
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since he was a kid.
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He was…. He started as a sailor. Then he served in the US navy.
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and you know he was a fantastic character
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Simon: He was charismatic?
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Petru: Oh yes. In a sort of subtle, moderate way that was not apparent right from the beginning.
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He was not always making big gestures, he was always taking pictures, he was like an
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American cowboy.
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[Sound of a door opening] Oh Sweetie
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Noma: Can't sleep
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Simon: Sweetie, we've done bedtime, sweetie
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Noma: Who’s like an American Cowboy?
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Simon: Well...Loren in Petru's book, sweetie, in the jungle, the book about the jungle
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Noma: What animals are in the jungle?
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Simon: I told you, look, you know the jaguars, the birds and the macaws and the monkeys and
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the insects
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Noma: What do they sound like?
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Simon: Okay, you want me to do the sounds of the animals again? Alright
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Noma: Yes, alright
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Simon: If I do that will you then promise me that you'll go to sleep?
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Noma: Yes
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Simon: Okay, so now you have to be very quiet
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[He makes the sounds of the jungle looping one animal/bird/insect sound over another]
396
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Daybreak, he was awakened as if by a silent clock and lay for a moment listening to the
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forest singing.
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Then he bathed in the river, dressed, cooked himself some oatmeal,
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slipped a few rolls of film into his pocket and walked up the beach towards the giant
400
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lupunas tree.
401
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He walked round the back of its enormous roots
402
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and then somehow on the screen of his mind
403
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Loren: Hey buddy, you're not alone
404
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Simon: He had the sensation of presence and then almost instantaneously he saw a young
405
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man in the forest
406
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naked, two plots of red urucu on his cheeks.
407
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And beside him was a boy, another man and a third, with a dead red howler monkey on
408
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his back.
409
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They carried bows and arrows. Spines bristled out of their lips, and there was no question,
410
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these people were Mayoruna.
411
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Loren: Cat people
412
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Simon: Loren McIntyre looked at them. They looked at him. His camera, a Minolta, weighed
413
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on his chest.
414
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Loren: OK..I could shoot from the hip. No, I want a better shot, let’s get it through
415
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the viewfinder.
416
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Simon: He raised the camera. No reaction.
417
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This was the instant when things could go either way, towards friendliness or hostility.
418
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They looked at him. He looked at them. He knew the Mayoruna had never been successfully
419
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acculturated
420
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at the turn of the century, as the rubber boom brought more intrusion and conflict to
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upper Amazonia
422
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they simply slipped into the forest and disappeared
423
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but now they were reappearing, undoubtedly carrying memories of bloodshed, violence,
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brutality.
425
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They looked at him. He looked at them. They were both absolutely still.
426
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The moment was wonderful and unrepeatable.
427
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[sound of a camera]
428
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Loren: First contact. My god, what a shot. Ideal first contact
429
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Simon: They stood. Looking at each other. [Sound of camera] And then they turned [sound
430
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of camera]
431
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Loren: Hang on fellas
432
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Simon: They were disappearing into the forest. What should he do?
433
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Loren: Okay [sound of camera] okay, seems okay, I'm gonna follow them
434
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[Rustling]
435
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The path followed a twisting trail, deviating right or left practically every few steps.
436
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The river, which had been just behind him was now lost. He didn’t know where it was
437
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but he didn’t really care.
438
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[Sound of camera] Loren: Great shot. Look at that. Change the roll.
439
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Simon: He was far too busy photographing to break off twigs and mark his trail.
440
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Besides, he was excited and he expected the village to appear at any moment.
441
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But then glanced at his watch. He hardly ever looked at his watch in the forest, there was
442
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no reason to do so.
443
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[Sound of a watch]
444
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Five to nine, he had been walking for more than an hour.
445
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Loren: I may not be able to retrace my steps but I'm sure they're going to give me a guide
446
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back.
447
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It'll be okay. The village wont be far.
448
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Simon: But the truth was, that being so excited by the Mayoruna, he’d simply forgotten to
449
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mark his passage as he normally did.
450
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He was so far in the jungle he had no way of getting back.
451
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Time was passing. Five, ten, twenty, forty minutes later, still no village.
452
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Loren: Okay, don't panic. Just keep your mind on the pictures. Look at that! [Sound of camera]
453
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Keep your mind on the pictures.
454
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It'll be your chance at the big one [sound of a camera]
455
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Simon: Suddenly the trees pulled back. Staring in surprise, Loren stumbled.
456
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A narrow horizon of huts, perhaps six, seven, eight or nine at a glance, it was a village,
457
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but it looked as if they had just arrived, because a provisional air hung over everything.
458
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Then the man who he’d called Red Cheeks, suddenly turned and looked at him, his eyes
459
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like black bullets.
460
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And the little boy moved towards him. Curious.
461
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"Tutti!" Called the man with red cheeks.
462
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Was that his name? Or was it a warning?
463
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and then suddenly McIntyre was surrounded by people, who showed their surprise by silence
464
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and an almost solemn expression. They stood all around him.
465
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Loren: Fala Portuguese? Hablo Espanol?
466
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:36,800
Simon: No reaction. Strange as over the years even marginal tribes had borrowed from Portuguese
467
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:37,720
and Spanish.
468
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:41,320
And then people started to get closer and closer until suddenly a man with a conical
469
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:42,840
hat of leaves hurried over
470
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:48,120
and without being physically pushed McIntyre was made to advance along a fallen tree,
471
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:51,560
all the way through a clearing, towards the hut as unassuming as all the rest.
472
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:57,400
In front of which sat a man, on a carved stool, with a headdress of white Egret feathers.
473
00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:05,440
Headman, if headman it was, had warts on his knees and ankles resembling barnacles.
474
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:10,720
He said nothing, he just gazed at Loren, an arrow in his lap.
475
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:14,200
The whole community, men, women, children stood all around.
476
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:32,320
Loren: Bom dia. Mi nombre es Loren. Me llamo Loren. Fala Portuguese? Hablo espanol? No?
477
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,560
Well I may as well speak in English.
478
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:44,800
I came over on a plane, you saw it yeah, we came over twice, yeah
479
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:51,120
and then I followed this guy here with the red cheeks. I followed him into your village,
480
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:52,080
okay?
481
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:57,880
And we landed on the water, okay and I need a guide to take me back to camp, yeah? By
482
00:33:57,880 --> 00:33:58,840
the river
483
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:06,240
The river? You call it the Javari. Javari. Javari
484
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:12,000
Simon: It was clear that the name of the river was not that for them
485
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,240
and then the man who he had followed into the village called Red Cheeks, started to
486
00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:15,240
speak
487
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:19,480
loudly, urgently, haranguing the chief, pointing at Loren. He didn't look or sound particularly
488
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:20,480
welcoming.
489
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:21,640
[Talking]
490
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,440
Simon: and that was the signal for other people to join in
491
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:32,960
and everybody seemed to have an opinion, a point of view. Talking about the plane. Pointing
492
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:33,920
at Loren.
493
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,760
Children pulling at his clothes.
494
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:41,920
But the headman said nothing, he listened and he looked at Loren
495
00:34:42,240 --> 00:34:49,120
and then suddenly he smiled, revealing teeth like shards of black obsidian.
496
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:54,760
And then as quickly as it started it seemed to be over and Loren was made to walk back
497
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,760
along this tree
498
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:02,280
towards the middle of the clearing, where suddenly he was no longer the centre of attention.
499
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:07,080
The heat was oppressive. He took on water.
500
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,560
He was frustrated with himself for not being able to communicate.
501
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,400
He had never had that experience in 25 years with indigenous people
502
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:21,440
and he was furious with himself for not marking his passage because he had absolutely no way
503
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,160
of getting back.
504
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:31,600
Loren: That was dumb. Well I'm either in a jam or I'm starting a great experience
505
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:39,640
but that was the dumbest thing I've done in 25 years.
506
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:46,280
Simon: An hour before dusk, he was adopted by a family of four who offered him the use
507
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:48,440
of a hammock in their hut.
508
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,080
He stood in the doorway, watching the light fade.
509
00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:01,480
Loren: God, beautiful light [sound of a camera].
510
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:06,840
Why is everything half finished? They're not even bothering to complete it.
511
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,640
Simon: He noticed they just used a space around the fallen tree,
512
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,920
they hadn't even cut a clearing in forest as they would normally, why was that?
513
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:21,160
Loren: It really feels like they're hiding and they're emaciated. Haven't eaten for a
514
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,240
long time.
515
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:28,360
She's beautiful.
516
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:31,440
[Sound of a camera]
517
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:35,880
Simon: Across the clearing, he could see a girl, with strikingly shiny eyes
518
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:37,400
and then suddenly she called - "Tutti!"
519
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:42,760
And the little boy he had followed into the village, suddenly appeared at her elbow
520
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:46,720
and she gave him some beiju, forest bread, made from manioc flour
521
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:49,160
and he tore into it hungrily.
522
00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:54,480
Loren: Tutti, Tutti, so that's his name. He's hungry.
523
00:36:55,480 --> 00:37:00,960
Hey Tutti! [Sound of camera] Great shot.
524
00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:05,000
Wonder what I'm starting by photographing these people.
525
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,480
I wouldn't want to see them inundated with government agents and anthropologists.
526
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,960
They have no defence against infection.
527
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:22,080
[sound of camera] Certainly don't want to see them become dependent on outsiders
528
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,400
that’s the saddest affect of acculturation.
529
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:27,520
Truth is, best safeguard is not to contact them
530
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:33,960
but well, I'm here [sound of camera] Thanks buddy.
531
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:40,560
I'm only gonna be here a couple of days, so my affect on them will be limited…and I
532
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:44,280
hope unlasting.
533
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:49,720
Simon: He climbed into his hammock feeling more alone than is possible to be alone in
534
00:37:49,720 --> 00:37:50,520
a special sense
535
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,200
because he was in the middle of a busy human community.
536
00:37:54,760 --> 00:38:00,200
And as the light began to fade even more, he suddenly thought he heard the voice of
537
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:02,120
the man he called Red Cheeks
538
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:06,520
out in the clearing, angry, arguing, contacting other young men.
539
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:12,520
It slightly disturbed him so he closed his eyes to shut it out
540
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:17,240
and then he noticed and obscure murmur, a strange inner hum
541
00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:21,040
and he realised he had this sensation before when he was standing before the headman,
542
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,520
the man with barnacles on his legs,
543
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:25,840
and was it coming from the people.
544
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:32,880
No no that was just his imagination, his response to being alone in their midst.
545
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,160
So he lay back into his unconscious.
546
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:44,880
Ian McGilchrist: Earlier you talked about your child, and watching this little consciousness
547
00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:45,600
grow.
548
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:49,080
And of course the child is not a tabular rasa, it’s not a blank sheet.
549
00:38:49,240 --> 00:38:52,440
Steve Rose: consciousness of ourselves, the stories we tell about ourselves
550
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:56,840
and the ways in which we view the world around us are so profoundly social
551
00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:03,080
and so profoundly shaped by technology and culture that it’s difficult to think outside it.
552
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:10,640
Marcus Du Sautoy: but there’s talk now of time actually being an emergent phenomenon…
553
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:16,440
that grows out of our lack of understanding...
554
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:25,880
Loren: One fifth of the world's fresh water is here. Fresh flowing into salt, where does
555
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:27,960
it begin?
556
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:31,280
Where does it all begin?
557
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:37,600
Simon: Loren McIntyre was flying, suspended, airborne. Hovering above a vision of the jungle
558
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:38,880
and mountains.
559
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:40,680
Like an oversized map.
560
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,360
It was a dream and in his dream he knew it.
561
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:46,120
A vast stretch of jungle spread out beneath him
562
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:51,000
and to the east the 200 mile wide mouth of the Amazon river
563
00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:54,920
and the Ocean, flowing all the way to the Arctic and Antarctic.
564
00:39:55,040 --> 00:40:01,400
He looked up. Clouds heavy with water vapour hung in the air and as he looked down,
565
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,840
the forest was phosphorescent as if lit from underneath
566
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:08,320
and suddenly he felt the phosphorescence the forest lifts
567
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,720
rich life forms. This was its treasure.
568
00:40:12,720 --> 00:40:16,440
Loren: The Christian conquistadors they were wrong, all wrong.
569
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:23,440
Pizarro, Francisco d’Orellana, Cortez, Columbus,
570
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,040
all wrong, all wrong.
571
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:31,720
Simon: The oil prospectors, the rubber tappers, the missionaries with their singing faith
572
00:40:31,720 --> 00:40:32,960
had all been wrong.
573
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,280
They were all looking for the wrong things.
574
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:41,120
Something else. But in his dream McIntyre recognised what it was, although didn't have
575
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:42,560
any words.
576
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:46,560
Loren: It's the intricacy of the forest...is that it? Is that the treasure?
577
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:51,240
Simon: He could feel that something suffused the greenness of the jungle, all fed by a
578
00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:52,600
single source,
579
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:57,960
hidden somewhere in the mountains. It was an invisible force all interconnected,
580
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,920
pregnant with a captive message.
581
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,600
Loren: What is it?
582
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:07,200
Simon: And then suddenly he was sitting in front of the headman
583
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:11,960
with the dream’s camera lens focusing first on the man’s legs, before lifting to his
584
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:13,280
face.
585
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:14,600
Loren: Barnacle.
586
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:18,200
Simon: And then he awoke. The hut was shaking so he jumped out of his hammock and then it
587
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:19,360
came down.
588
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:23,520
The other huts right and left were also coming down.
589
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:28,520
People were standing around, carrying baskets, drinking gourds, bows and arrows, fishnets
590
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:33,440
and suddenly the chief appeared and walked along the crowd as if passing it in review
591
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:38,880
and on unspoken command everybody moved off into the forest.
592
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:44,400
Loren: Where are they going? Goddammit they're off, where are they going?
593
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:48,840
Simon: Well he couldn't stay here alone, so he rushed to catch them up.
594
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:53,160
Loren: Where are they going?
595
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,520
[heavy breathing]
596
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,240
Loren: Goddammit
597
00:42:00,240 --> 00:42:05,360
Simon: He was now part of they, walking swiftly along, like a Mayoruna,
598
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:09,960
whose possessions, instead of being bows and arrows, happened to be a pen, a notebook,
599
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:10,880
and a camera.
600
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:17,920
Half an hour later he crossed a muddy stream.
601
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:20,480
He knew it was half an hour because he kept checking his wristwatch,
602
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:24,440
as if trying to stay in contact with the clock operated world.
603
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:28,480
Loren: goddammit, we're getting further and further away.
604
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:33,040
I'm being swallowed by the Amazon growth on its own terms.
605
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:37,640
Simon: And he knew it. He listed the dangers.
606
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:43,480
Loren: Funghi, bacteria, intestinal parasites.
607
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:52,120
Radical fluctuations in temperature. No cooked food. No sterilised water.
608
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:58,480
Simon: These things went over and over in his head. Repeating and repeating.
609
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:03,960
A macabre aura, surging up from his unconscious, like a river. He had to do something.
610
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:10,560
Loren: Come on. Look at that. Look at that. Okay, okay, just think of the pictures.
611
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:13,800
The pictures.
612
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:19,640
That's it. This is your chance. You're going to get a superlative picture for the front
613
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:21,360
cover of the Geographic.
614
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:23,240
That's beautiful.
615
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,880
Simon: As he panted behind the headman , he suddenly thought what a ludicrous ambition.
616
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:33,680
Photographers. So momentary, so fickle. Trying to fit time into one moment.
617
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:38,840
What lay behind this frenzy? He asked himself. Fear. Fear of the future. Fear of losing the
618
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:39,320
past.
619
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:41,440
So unlike these people he thought, as he looked around him.
620
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:46,040
They never think of the future. They don't store. Hoard up belongings.
621
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:52,480
Time for them was an invisible companion and something comfortable and unseen like the
622
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:53,480
air
623
00:43:53,720 --> 00:44:00,440
but for us civilizados, time is a possession. An increasingly more efficient machine.
624
00:44:01,240 --> 00:44:02,280
[Sound of a camera]
625
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:08,120
Late that afternoon they broke in to what had once been the most enormous clearing.
626
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:09,360
[sound of thunder]
627
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:13,280
Barnacle stopped, making everyone stop and a sudden rainstorm lashed down,
628
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:17,120
there was no protection from the upper canopy in this place and within seconds McIntyre
629
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:18,120
was wet
630
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:22,680
and again he felt his panic rising when he thought about the river's ability to swell.
631
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:26,880
So he put his mind on watching the people. What were they doing?
632
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:42,000
[hitting sticks]
633
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:46,200
They were building another settlement. So what was the purpose of that?
634
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:48,880
They had hardly finished building the last one when they destroyed it
635
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:51,080
and they're building this one a little further on.
636
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:57,640
It wasn't clear what it accomplished and he noticed again how thin and tired everybody
637
00:44:57,760 --> 00:44:58,760
looked.
638
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:02,440
It gave him a sense of foreboding and then suddenly he saw the headman,
639
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,640
who he had now christened Barnacle, sitting on his chair in front of a fire in the middle
640
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:07,640
of the clearing
641
00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:11,200
His eyes were at half mast, his cheeks were gaunt
642
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:16,360
but even from a distance he could see his hands were moving with precision
643
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,680
and because of the acoustic of the clearing he could hear him
644
00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:22,920
as if he was standing next to him.
645
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:30,160
[carving wood sounds]
646
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:33,160
He was whittling an arrow.
647
00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:39,680
Now McIntyre knew that if he was to survive he would need help from someone in authority.
648
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:44,560
Someone of stature. So he thought quickly
649
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:52,600
and then he picked up several long throngs of palm twine and he tore them into strips
650
00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:58,680
and then he moved across the clearing towards the headman,
651
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:06,000
as he did so, he tied a knot in the end.
652
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:13,440
And when he stood beside him, the headman didn't even acknowledge him
653
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:20,760
but then his fingers started to move, slowly at first as if remembering some long forgotten
654
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:21,600
trade.
655
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:36,640
[Rustling]
656
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:44,080
He was weaving an eighteen strand belt. It was a trick he had learnt in the Merchant
657
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:44,960
Navy.
658
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:50,000
A way of fighting boredom at sea, also a way of connecting with other men
659
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:53,160
and perhaps a way of connecting with this man now.
660
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:59,720
Loren let himself be carried away by the dance of the fingers
661
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:05,320
and as the belt emerged, Barnacle's eyes fluttered in appreciation.
662
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:16,200
Voice: Some of us are friends.
663
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:22,280
Simon: Moments later he remembered how Barnacle had said that some of the Mayoruna were friends.
664
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:26,760
But the headman had not spoken. Not in English. And in fact not at all.
665
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:35,160
Voice: Some of us are friends.
666
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:38,280
Simon: It felt like a message but the headman had not spoken. McIntyre spoke no Mayoruna.
667
00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:40,600
None of the Mayoruna spoke English.
668
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:45,240
He looked at the headman but the headman didn't acknowledge him at all.
669
00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:47,400
So he leaned closer.
670
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:51,280
[Breathing]
671
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:56,800
Close enough to hear him breathing through his nose.
672
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:03,720
Voice: Some of us are friends.
673
00:48:03,720 --> 00:48:07,360
Simon: Some of us are friends. Was it a reassurance or a warning?
674
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:11,800
The headman was working on passing hairs around the tip of the arrow to make it bristle
675
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:15,600
and then whatever it was, this message, it faded.
676
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:19,840
Maybe it was just being so near to him
677
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:25,120
that explained the sensation that his mind was unconsciously adding words in English
678
00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:32,280
but then he had an idea and he strained and applied a focus not on the words of his next
679
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:33,320
thought
680
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,000
but on their content and instead of thinking:
681
00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:39,080
Loren: Hey buddy, I'm a friend too, you can trust me.
682
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:44,960
Simon: He tried to fill himself with the feelings of that thought
683
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:48,600
and then he waited.
684
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:54,920
Voice: I know.
685
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,400
Simon: Somehow appeared in his mind,
686
00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:03,320
or maybe was it just a feeling of the answer with his own words in English hurrying in
687
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:04,440
to illustrate it
688
00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:08,080
but then suddenly the headman rose and held out the arrow he was working on.
689
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:11,360
He was being offered a gift. He took it.
690
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:20,320
[Rustling]
691
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:24,760
And when Barnacle was several yards away he reached into his memory, no he had not spoken
692
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:26,000
out loud.
693
00:49:26,120 --> 00:49:31,000
Barnacle understood no English, he strained his ears remembering yesterday's buzzing.
694
00:49:31,240 --> 00:49:35,800
wondering whether he was simply going insane. He needlessly checked his watch,
695
00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:40,280
as if that needless piece of western machinery could somehow counterbalance what he was hearing.
696
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:42,880
[watch ticking]
697
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:49,160
Yeah it was the unique ambience. So many things here in their elemental state. Well why not?
698
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:57,200
The simplest form of human contact. Mind to mind. No. What was he thinking?
699
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:04,320
But surely it had been ratified because he'd been offered this absolutely beautiful gift.
700
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:11,640
[Rain] The rains came again. The adults ran into the huts for shelter but the children
701
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,360
came out to play.
702
00:50:15,240 --> 00:50:18,520
[camera sounds]
703
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:25,400
And then Loren saw his friend Tutti run across the clearing and stop by himself panting,
704
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:31,120
under a group of leaves right at the edge, and begin to watch raindrops trickle down
705
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:32,760
in separate drops of three
706
00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:38,040
and for a moment Loren put his camera away and just watched the Mayoruna boy watching
707
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:40,600
the rain.
708
00:50:43,400 --> 00:51:00,480
[Raindrops]
709
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:19,600
[Tapping]
710
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:23,560
He pounded the ground with his little feet. Loren stood and watched.
711
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:29,480
Early man, he thought again, the concept of succession, the earliest symbol of the passing
712
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:30,080
of time
713
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:36,200
by observing natural phenomena, the repeated call of birds, the dripping of water, man's
714
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:37,480
own heartbeat
715
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:44,680
his first clues that time existed in a pulsing vein invisibly uniting all of life
716
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:48,240
and from such early rhythms, dance was born,
717
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:51,680
to stay with man forever.
718
00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:58,840
Loren watched Tutti dancing the dance of the rain, devising a game, an interpretation of
719
00:51:58,840 --> 00:51:59,800
reality,
720
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,200
from three drops of rain.
721
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:08,480
Marcus Du Sautoy: If you to the caves at Lascaux, then you see a sequence of thirteen dots
722
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:12,600
and above the thirteenth dot is this huge great big animal.
723
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:18,000
Now these thirteen dots seem to be representing thirteen weeks, thirteen chords of the moon,
724
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:20,440
after the pleiades has first emerged.
725
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:25,120
To understand time, you have to understand something a bit ritualistic, something which
726
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:26,160
is repeated,
727
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:28,480
whether that be your heartbeat or...
728
00:52:28,720 --> 00:52:31,280
Noma: Four, five, six, seven, eight...
729
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:37,240
Simon: Meanwhile, down river, men from Loren's world were busy, elaborating plans that would
730
00:52:37,240 --> 00:52:38,280
deliver Tutti
731
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:42,880
to the world of machinery, televised news, soft drinks and government welfare.
732
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:48,040
American Voice: [Jingle] Meet Timmy. Today Timmy's going to learn about psychology and
733
00:52:48,040 --> 00:52:48,960
advertising.
734
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:54,080
Advertisings main functions are to inform, persuade and influence. Today we'll be focusing
735
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:55,080
on persuasion...
736
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:05,280
Simon: Tutti danced on unsuspectingly.
737
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:09,440
Some of us are friends.
738
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:20,880
Petru: Every time you go and spend time with a tribe like that, you change them to
739
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:21,960
an extent.
740
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:28,240
You bring them over to a stage of civilisation that they would reach perhaps, but you bring
741
00:53:28,320 --> 00:53:29,120
them over too fast.
742
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:36,320
On the other hand you, as the scientist, you gain immensely from having been immersed in
743
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:37,200
the experience.
744
00:53:37,360 --> 00:53:43,080
Basically it is is our gain, we the modern people, and it is usually their loss.
745
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:51,600
If we decide never to contact tribes any more, then we will never find out the deepest, most
746
00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:54,960
interesting and controversial things about ourselves.
747
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:03,320
On the other hand, how will they develop? More slowly, although they have always developed
748
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:04,760
more slowly.
749
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:08,720
They will still get to our civilisation at one time or another
750
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:15,800
and as you said, material progress is unfortunately unavoidable.
751
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:22,440
Simon: A little while later the fires were restarted and beiju was cooked
752
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:26,920
and Loren noticed that Barnacle was the only one that hadn't eaten.
753
00:54:27,080 --> 00:54:31,480
He was back making his arrows. Why hadn't he eaten?
754
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,080
And then suddenly he realised
755
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:41,200
Loren: He's fasting. Okay. Why is he fasting?
756
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:46,400
Some of us are friends.
757
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:55,920
[sound of a door]
758
00:54:56,240 --> 00:54:58,120
Noma: Dadda, I'm hungry
759
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:02,920
Simon: No sweetie pops, my darling, look you can't keep on getting up, okay
760
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:05,840
Noma: Why have you got your shoes on it the house?
761
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:06,800
Simon: What? Oh
762
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:08,640
Noma: You don't want to get the floor dirty
763
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:13,000
Simon: Well yeah, Mumma's away I thought it didn't matter really
764
00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:16,400
Alright. I'll take them off your right, I'll take them off
765
00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:17,560
Now sweetie, you really must
766
00:55:18,320 --> 00:55:19,320
Noma: Can I have something to eat?
767
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:26,640
Simon: I haven't got anything to eat, my. Oh I see you're looking my personal midnight snack
768
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:31,280
That's mine. You want some of this, is that it?
769
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:33,160
Noma: Mmm yes please
770
00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:34,080
I thought so.
771
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:41,720
Simon: Alright, you can have one but then you're going back to sleep. Alright my sweetie
772
00:55:41,720 --> 00:55:42,600
[Crunching]
773
00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:44,560
Noma: Night night Daddy, give me a kiss
774
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:46,120
Simon: Night night my darling
775
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:52,120
Off you go, and don't slam the door sweetie. Got a little headache. Quiet, quiet
776
00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:54,880
[door slam]
777
00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:13,880
Simon: I've got Walkers again tonight. Hoping for Kettles but there we go. It being a special night
778
00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:16,840
What does it say here?
779
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:28,120
Follow us on Twitter. How do you follow a crisp packet on Twitter?
780
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:46,640
[Rustling/crackling]
781
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:55,880
[sound of fire crackling]
782
00:56:56,280 --> 00:57:00,760
Simon: He awoke feeling fingers on his left arm, he looked up his watch was gone
783
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:05,600
and people were looking down to him in his hammock and then a nauseating smell of smoke
784
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:07,200
and burning rubber was filling his nostrils.
785
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:10,120
He looked over the edge of his hammock and he realised what it was
786
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:16,720
Loren: Oh god my trainers. My Adidas trainers. They're burning my Adidas trainers. God.
787
00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:20,920
Simon: He swung out of his hammock and pushed his way through a group of people into the plaza
788
00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:27,600
and there indeed were his trainers, melting on a fire and his watch was already a blackened disc.
789
00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:33,520
Loren: Yeah excuse me fellas, excuse me, those are mine.
790
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:39,960
Okay, alright. You can laugh. You don't need shoes and I do. Ohhhhhhhh
791
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:40,960
Owwweeeee
792
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:46,800
Okay, so you got my shoes, got my watch. At least I've got my camera
793
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:48,720
and at that moment I realised I didn't have my camera.
794
00:57:48,880 --> 00:57:51,720
I had gone to sleep with it on my hip, it was no longer there.
795
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:56,760
So I walked back into my hut, I looked at my hammock, it wasn't there. Where is it?
796
00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:01,840
It's nowhere in the hut so they've taken it. And suddenly my heart is racing in front of me.
797
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:06,280
I go out. People are glancing at me, glancing away, I wanna get hold of them and say:
798
00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:08,200
Where's my fucking camera?!
799
00:58:08,240 --> 00:58:13,560
Calm down, calm down, they're naked, they can't hide a black box anywhere.
800
00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:18,080
And then suddenly I see Red Cheeks who is looking at me his arms folded and then he turns away.
801
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:24,040
And here comes Barnacle. Oh he's clearly innocent of all this.
802
00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:26,480
He's looking to right and left to see what's going on
803
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:31,120
and people are avoiding his eyes and suddenly I realise they're hexing me.
804
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:36,360
Burning personal belongings is almost always a hex in an indigenous society
805
00:58:36,440 --> 00:58:39,560
and I know I have to act, I have to do something before the moment passed.
806
00:58:39,760 --> 00:58:44,680
I was being ostracised, they were drifting away and Barnacle was looking at me, he was
807
00:58:44,680 --> 00:58:45,560
looking irritated.
808
00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:53,240
I didn't know what to do. So I did the first thing that came into my head.
809
00:58:53,560 --> 00:59:09,360
[running sounds]
810
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:15,080
I started jogging around the perimeter of the village.
811
00:59:15,320 --> 00:59:19,760
I watched my feet pound on the grass. One lap. Two laps.
812
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:24,360
I was in such a panic that I heard my thoughts running ahead of me.
813
00:59:24,480 --> 00:59:28,920
But running felt good. It felt liberating. I was doing something, you know.
814
00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:35,320
I passed Red Cheeks, who was yelling at his buddies, about something. They had hexed me.
815
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:42,640
I was hexing them. I was casting a spell of my own, so on I ran
816
00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:47,560
and now people were coming back. They were watching and Barnacle was standing in the crowd
817
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:52,240
trying to gauge their reactions. So every time I passed him I broke into a hammering
818
00:59:52,520 --> 00:59:53,680
of fists and feet,
819
00:59:53,680 --> 00:59:59,320
like a parody of intent. I can't think of anything else to do. I've got to get through to you.
820
00:59:59,960 --> 01:00:04,480
Come on. Now they're watching.
821
01:00:07,000 --> 01:00:08,560
Voice: We have to communicate
822
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:12,080
Voice: We are communicating
823
01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:17,400
Loren: Eight, nine, ten, eleven laps
824
01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:21,920
Voice: I want to survive, I want you to survive
825
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:31,080
Loren: I ran on and on. The heat was intense. I pushed myself to the absolute limit.
826
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:36,440
Everybody was watching, everybody was discussing. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty laps
827
01:00:36,480 --> 01:00:42,560
and on the twentieth lap I slowed to walk the last half lap
828
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:47,000
and then I stood right in front of Barnacle, dripping with sweat, breathing.
829
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:50,680
What was he gonna do?
830
01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:56,400
And then he turned and started jogging just the way I had gone.
831
01:00:56,640 --> 01:00:58,040
[Running sounds]
832
01:00:58,240 --> 01:01:02,840
But in the opposite direction. Counter clockwise.
833
01:01:03,040 --> 01:01:08,040
He was undoing my spell and every time he passed me he did the same thing,
834
01:01:08,160 --> 01:01:10,840
he broke into a hammering of fists and feet.
835
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:14,840
Voice: I don't know if this will work. I don't know if my people will follow me.
836
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:17,640
Loren: At that point I thought I was I losing my mind?
837
01:01:17,840 --> 01:01:23,640
because I felt as if I was literally inside his head. Thinking his thoughts.
838
01:01:24,880 --> 01:01:29,480
Look, when I say that, I tell you, I'm absolutely not psychic.
839
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:37,200
I don't believe in that shit. But still, I received it every time.
840
01:01:37,200 --> 01:01:40,240
Voice: I have no alternative. I have to try to make it work.
841
01:01:40,400 --> 01:01:45,680
Loren: Okay. So there was some bigger emergency. There's a threshold of some kind in the tribe's life.
842
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:46,680
That's what I understood.
843
01:01:46,680 --> 01:01:49,520
Voice: Other white people have been before. They brought death.
844
01:01:50,120 --> 01:01:53,920
My people are trying now to avoid that death
845
01:01:53,960 --> 01:01:59,840
Loren: It was very clear. Barnacle was leading his people somewhere, where I didn't know
846
01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:05,760
but on he went. On and on and he ran until his chest became a mirror of sweat.
847
01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:10,480
He was at the limit of his strength and remember he was fasting
848
01:02:10,480 --> 01:02:16,480
and now his people started to utter cries of encouragement, bending their bodies in
849
01:02:16,480 --> 01:02:17,440
and out of his
850
01:02:17,440 --> 01:02:22,720
path as he ran. Red Cheeks had drifted away in disgust but on he ran.
851
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:26,680
And now the messages were not the same. They had sort of dissolved
852
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:32,080
and they no longer glowed, they sort of dissolved into a residual message
853
01:02:32,080 --> 01:02:36,280
a kind of leftover and it crystalised into this
854
01:02:36,280 --> 01:02:40,280
The face of time. The face of time.
855
01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:44,720
What does he mean? The face of time?
856
01:02:45,040 --> 01:02:49,680
On he went. On and on. What does he mean, the face of time?
857
01:02:49,680 --> 01:02:55,400
Eighteen, nineteen, and on the twentieth lap he walked the last half lap and everybody
858
01:02:55,400 --> 01:02:57,160
hailed their chief.
859
01:02:57,280 --> 01:03:02,720
[Cheering]
860
01:03:02,720 --> 01:03:07,080
He stopped in front of me, he raised a finger, he said something solemn and then everybody
861
01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:09,840
drifted away,
862
01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:17,040
leaving me to look at the space, where we had run our competing spells.
863
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:23,880
The face of time. The face of time. What did he mean by that?
864
01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:27,880
Had I heard anything? What had I heard?
865
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:36,640
I slipped my feet into the remains of my chargrilled Adidas trainers.
866
01:03:38,480 --> 01:03:43,880
I turned towards the forest and composed myself.
867
01:03:44,120 --> 01:03:49,600
Just look at the jumble of branches, a black creeper...That's not a black creeper.
868
01:03:49,760 --> 01:03:54,760
That's a roll of film. My film. I had two rolls of film, now I've only got one.
869
01:03:54,840 --> 01:04:00,600
I must have dropped one as I was running Who put it up there? And my camera.
870
01:04:00,800 --> 01:04:05,640
I looked a little higher and I saw what had got both things because there was my camera,
871
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:09,040
in the hands of a wooly monkey.
872
01:04:09,240 --> 01:04:14,880
Yeah, yeah that's a pet of one of the kids. He's climbing higher. Hey, hey buddy!
873
01:04:15,240 --> 01:04:24,000
Oooo yeah ooo throw it yar, throw...What am I doing? I'm talking to a monkey.
874
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:29,440
If I get a stick and get that fucker...
875
01:04:30,960 --> 01:04:32,480
and then he caught it. Bad idea.
876
01:04:32,640 --> 01:04:37,840
Oh no, now he's poking at the camera. Don't do that. No no the camera. Bad.
877
01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:45,680
Flies open. He rips out the film, pops out, he throws it. He's got the camera in two hands
878
01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:52,640
and in one movement, these guys are strong, he ripped it in two
879
01:04:52,640 --> 01:04:55,720
[Camera] great shot.
880
01:04:58,040 --> 01:05:06,800
Simon: Loren McIntyre's knees gave way. He just sank to the floor and sat there,
881
01:05:06,920 --> 01:05:11,400
inches from his damaged camera. Useless. Reduced.
882
01:05:11,600 --> 01:05:15,640
Reduced to one roll of film. How could he prove that he'd been there?
883
01:05:15,640 --> 01:05:19,680
What was he going to give to the Geographic?
884
01:05:19,680 --> 01:05:24,720
He was reduced to just a body. Purposeless. He was a tourist now.
885
01:05:25,680 --> 01:05:28,640
No watch. He's have to live by nature's clock.
886
01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:32,000
He'd have to be like these people
887
01:05:32,920 --> 01:05:38,280
Petru: After this, Barnacle, as is described in the book, became extremely friendly
888
01:05:38,280 --> 01:05:41,000
and he started to spend time with him.
889
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:46,880
And to sort of protect – anyway, Barnacle and, er, McIntyre, became a sort of inseparable item.
890
01:05:47,120 --> 01:05:52,560
And he claims that then the time, by ten days in...
891
01:05:56,200 --> 01:06:02,400
Loren: Barnacle indicated that we should walk into the forest together. We passed a group
892
01:06:02,400 --> 01:06:03,400
of children,
893
01:06:03,400 --> 01:06:10,520
who gathered around a shaman. Tutti was there. He was showing them caterpillars, insects, plants.
894
01:06:10,520 --> 01:06:13,400
School in the law of the forest.
895
01:06:14,280 --> 01:06:22,440
Pretty soon they'll be able to survive on their own, day or night.
896
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:27,960
On we went and as soon as we were alone, the communication started again.
897
01:06:27,960 --> 01:06:29,120
Now it was smooth, implicit.
898
01:06:29,160 --> 01:06:34,040
Even though he was yards away in the clearing, he communicated to me.
899
01:06:34,040 --> 01:06:40,480
You are sad because what was in the dark, should have stayed in the dark.
900
01:06:40,520 --> 01:06:47,360
How can he know about my camera? How can he know what a camera is? Maybe he saw my disappointment
901
01:06:47,360 --> 01:06:52,040
but for a moment I couldn't believe he had not spoken, so I said to him
902
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:55,120
Fala fala portuguese?
903
01:06:55,640 --> 01:07:00,160
He was silent and then he frowned and then he leapt into my mind
904
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:03,040
that he did not understand what I was saying.
905
01:07:03,040 --> 01:07:10,960
So I went and stood close to him. Now, either I had to accept what was happening,
906
01:07:11,040 --> 01:07:15,920
or else I had to assume I was hallucinating.
907
01:07:16,120 --> 01:07:18,840
Anyway, Barnacle transmitted something like
908
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:24,400
Here's the forest, if you want to run away I'm not gonna stop you.
909
01:07:24,560 --> 01:07:30,800
I said nothing. Again he reiterated that other white people had been here before me and brought death
910
01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:38,280
Now it is almost impossible to describe the exact nature of this communication.
911
01:07:38,360 --> 01:07:42,800
It was a feeling that became a thought by words clustering
912
01:07:42,880 --> 01:07:50,160
but the clearest description I can give is that it was like a kind of dialogue. He said
913
01:07:50,360 --> 01:07:51,560
Voice: We have been moving around
914
01:07:51,760 --> 01:07:59,240
Loren: So I tried to communicate back. Have you been attacked?
915
01:07:59,920 --> 01:08:04,800
Voice: Yes....By white people who came down from the sky
916
01:08:05,080 --> 01:08:08,440
Loren: So where are you moving to?
917
01:08:08,440 --> 01:08:10,360
Voice: We're going to the beginning
918
01:08:10,880 --> 01:08:13,520
Loren: What? What was that? The beginning?
919
01:08:13,760 --> 01:08:14,720
What beginning?
920
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:16,320
Voice: The beginning
921
01:08:18,040 --> 01:08:22,720
Loren: We walked back to the village and then Barnacle stopped and scanned me with his eyes,
922
01:08:22,720 --> 01:08:27,280
what they spelled was clear, no beaming necessary. What was I gonna do?
923
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:29,520
Was I coming with them?
924
01:08:29,680 --> 01:08:36,560
I turned away because I was asking myself the same question. What am I gonna do?
925
01:08:39,880 --> 01:08:42,760
Petru: But he kept telling us, how can I say this, the Geographic is going to jump on me?
926
01:08:43,040 --> 01:08:46,680
I said, Loren no one’s going to jump on you, you may create some controversy
927
01:08:46,960 --> 01:08:49,720
about whether what you believe happened, happened
928
01:08:49,720 --> 01:08:51,800
but that's not a case of fraud or anything.
929
01:08:51,960 --> 01:09:00,200
We got him comfortable, and, he was towards the age, to which he wanted to talk about it
930
01:09:08,280 --> 01:09:11,040
Noma: Can you know what I'm thinking inside my head?
931
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:15,120
Steven Rose: Of course I need my brain. I need my brain to think. I need my brain to
932
01:09:15,240 --> 01:09:16,800
be conscious.
933
01:09:17,160 --> 01:09:21,600
It doesn't mean that consciousness is in my brain any more than the fact that I need my
934
01:09:21,840 --> 01:09:24,120
legs to walk...
935
01:09:24,400 --> 01:09:29,160
Ian McGilchrist: Everything in the world is only known in comparison to everything else
936
01:09:29,280 --> 01:09:29,880
that we know.
937
01:09:30,040 --> 01:09:31,480
There isn't a way of getting out of it.
938
01:09:31,520 --> 01:09:36,320
The myth that we’re up against now is that there’s some kind of abstract, objective
939
01:09:36,440 --> 01:09:37,240
reality
940
01:09:37,680 --> 01:09:45,160
that is beyond our myth making, beyond language, beyond metaphor, which is absolute rather
941
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:46,480
than relative.
942
01:09:46,720 --> 01:09:47,920
But there is no such thing.
943
01:09:52,160 --> 01:09:59,400
Loren: I slept until I thought I was dreaming of a jaguar and it's grunt [growling]
944
01:09:59,440 --> 01:10:04,240
but then I woke. There was a jaguar in the village. A jaguar in the village!
945
01:10:04,440 --> 01:10:11,120
I sat bolt upright. In the nearest hut, children cried out in panic. The noise of the village
946
01:10:11,280 --> 01:10:13,000
tripled in volume.
947
01:10:13,200 --> 01:10:14,360
[Commotion]
948
01:10:14,600 --> 01:10:18,040
Red Cheeks was calling out
949
01:10:19,000 --> 01:10:23,320
I ran out into the clearing. Six or seven young men brandishing spears and burning branches
950
01:10:23,360 --> 01:10:27,040
were ganged up in the middle of the clearing. Red Cheeks was there. He gestured for me to
951
01:10:27,120 --> 01:10:28,000
follow him.
952
01:10:28,160 --> 01:10:32,040
Now I had always, always wanted to see a jaguar hunt, I was just furious that I didn't have
953
01:10:32,040 --> 01:10:32,960
my camera.
954
01:10:33,080 --> 01:10:38,000
Anyway, we scrambled over the wet grass into a solid wall of fogged out forest vegetation.
955
01:10:38,160 --> 01:10:42,960
[Branches breaking] the branches went away into the darkness like flares. Come on keep up
956
01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:47,240
I'm in my fifties, these guys are in their twenties. The worst scenario is to get left
957
01:10:47,360 --> 01:10:48,720
alone in the forest.
958
01:10:48,880 --> 01:10:51,800
In the dark. Where are they?
959
01:10:52,040 --> 01:10:54,160
Heyay called Red Cheeks.
960
01:10:54,240 --> 01:10:56,960
There they are in front of a thicket, spiny thicket.
961
01:10:57,040 --> 01:11:00,760
I hurried towards it, so as not to miss the spectacle. [Growling]
962
01:11:00,960 --> 01:11:05,520
The beast crawled underneath a group of thorny plants. Between the roots of a huge tree I
963
01:11:05,800 --> 01:11:06,760
ran towards it
964
01:11:06,920 --> 01:11:11,560
and then, Red Cheeks pushed me and powered by this and my own momentum
965
01:11:11,760 --> 01:11:14,560
I ran straight into the middle of the thorn bush.
966
01:11:14,680 --> 01:11:17,440
Red Cheeks stamped on his torch and it went out. The other branches disappeared in the
967
01:11:17,680 --> 01:11:19,120
same instant.
968
01:11:19,760 --> 01:11:20,960
Total dark followed.
969
01:11:21,280 --> 01:11:25,840
Okay I'm trapped. Where's the jaguar? Where's the jaguar?
970
01:11:27,960 --> 01:11:30,000
And then I realised there wasn't one.
971
01:11:30,280 --> 01:11:33,600
Red Cheeks had imitated the grunt himself
972
01:11:34,080 --> 01:11:37,960
and now I'm alone in the dark in the jungle. Okay.
973
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:45,080
I've got to get out of the thorn bush.
974
01:11:45,080 --> 01:11:48,600
Die ten times over before anyone finds you if you don't get out.
975
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:56,120
The thorns were in my arms, my legs, my arse. Doesn't matter, just get out of here.
976
01:11:56,280 --> 01:12:02,600
Doesn't matter how painful. Off you go. Just pull [branches breaking]
977
01:12:05,600 --> 01:12:10,280
Oh god, now get them out of your skin. Pull them out. Oh they keep breaking.
978
01:12:10,280 --> 01:12:12,920
Now my arms are running with blood. I wave them in the air
979
01:12:13,120 --> 01:12:15,880
because I'm trying to coagulate the blood as quick as I can
980
01:12:16,160 --> 01:12:26,520
because I'm a magnet. Formations and formations of gnats, streak through the air towards me
981
01:12:26,520 --> 01:12:27,680
[buzzing]
982
01:12:27,920 --> 01:12:33,560
I scratch an arm; they pucker my face. I’ve got to move, to shake them off
983
01:12:33,960 --> 01:12:35,400
[buzzing]
984
01:12:38,520 --> 01:12:42,160
It's okay, okay, okay.
985
01:12:43,400 --> 01:12:46,480
Whats that? It's okay an animal is more afraid of you than you are of it.
986
01:12:50,720 --> 01:13:01,680
Think of something else. Think of evolution. How does a mosquito know that there's blood here?
987
01:13:01,680 --> 01:13:06,120
Come on think about it. Think of anything. What's that? Oh my god, look.
988
01:13:06,240 --> 01:13:14,200
Something luminous. What is that? Oh my god. Look at that. It's four pairs of luminous eyes.
989
01:13:14,200 --> 01:13:16,320
What is it? It's a spider? Oh my god.
990
01:13:16,600 --> 01:13:22,560
I looked into a palpitating mass of electric fire. I bring my eyes so close to this spider
991
01:13:22,680 --> 01:13:25,880
that its eyes must be reflected in mine.
992
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:34,640
Oh my god. How did he evolve? What sort of compounds rare and useful does he contain?
993
01:13:34,680 --> 01:13:42,520
Has he even got a name? You know, how did he evolve? The answer is, over time
994
01:13:42,520 --> 01:13:47,400
and then suddenly he moves away from me but I see something coming along
995
01:13:47,520 --> 01:13:53,680
a branch. It's a snake! Oh my god he's crying out some kind of distress signal on the spider frequency.
996
01:13:53,800 --> 01:13:59,000
He's gobbled, yeah...and now we're back in darkness.
997
01:14:04,280 --> 01:14:13,680
[scratching] I wake up scratching. The bugs have laid their eggs in the wounds left by the thorns
998
01:14:13,680 --> 01:14:15,560
as I slept standing up.
999
01:14:16,200 --> 01:14:21,320
Light! Okay, come on. Walk now. I need you to.
1000
01:14:23,080 --> 01:14:26,800
The trail back to the village. I'm saved.
1001
01:14:27,640 --> 01:14:32,600
And then I found a second trail and hope withers instantly.
1002
01:14:33,320 --> 01:14:34,120
Which one do I take?
1003
01:14:34,240 --> 01:14:38,760
And then there's a third. Any of these could lead to life or death but death is already
1004
01:14:39,040 --> 01:14:40,720
here in the wilderness.
1005
01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:45,520
You've got to go. They might move out of range.
1006
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:48,080
Voice: We're going to the beginning
1007
01:14:48,480 --> 01:14:52,000
Loren: They're gonna move, you've got to move. You've just got to make sure you don't move
1008
01:14:52,200 --> 01:14:52,960
in a circle.
1009
01:14:52,960 --> 01:14:58,920
Okay before it gets too hot, move as fast as you can and hope for some luck.
1010
01:14:59,560 --> 01:15:01,080
Come on. Just keep going.
1011
01:15:01,440 --> 01:15:08,280
Then suddenly I see a light. Humidity, higher temperature. It's a clearing.There it is.
1012
01:15:08,280 --> 01:15:09,200
It's a clearing.
1013
01:15:09,400 --> 01:15:15,480
I push towards it. I push in and it's an enormous clearing, full of hacked off, sawn off branches.
1014
01:15:15,480 --> 01:15:21,840
[chainsaw] Oh technological man is here! God. Hello! Anybody there?
1015
01:15:21,960 --> 01:15:27,120
Rebecca Spooner: And because of the price of oil these very remote regions
1016
01:15:27,120 --> 01:15:31,200
are being opened up to that kind of very expensive work.
1017
01:15:31,360 --> 01:15:33,480
Loren: I'm close to my fellow modern man.
1018
01:15:33,600 --> 01:15:38,960
The rapacious developer, as objectionable as he may be, I welcome his presence…
1019
01:15:39,320 --> 01:15:45,080
[Drilling]
1020
01:15:46,240 --> 01:15:52,680
I'm just thinking. I'm hoping it's just my hope making me... but look here's cable
1021
01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:57,560
and then I realise it's not a cable, it's a traffic of army ants
1022
01:15:57,720 --> 01:16:02,000
and I follow them away from the ant hill and then as I follow them, all of a sudden I find
1023
01:16:02,680 --> 01:16:04,880
a watch
1024
01:16:04,880 --> 01:16:07,680
and then I understand and before I can fully articulate the thought I start running along
1025
01:16:07,680 --> 01:16:09,080
the freeway of ants
1026
01:16:09,680 --> 01:16:14,600
all the way across the clearing as fast as I can and I find four bodies.
1027
01:16:14,720 --> 01:16:18,240
Voice: Other white people have been before and brought death
1028
01:16:18,720 --> 01:16:22,000
Loren: They're piled on top of each other, baseball caps,
1029
01:16:22,240 --> 01:16:26,080
jaws without gums, teeth stained by tobacco.
1030
01:16:26,360 --> 01:16:27,880
They seem to be in some sort of motion but it's just the movement
1031
01:16:27,880 --> 01:16:29,040
of ants crawling all over them.
1032
01:16:29,080 --> 01:16:32,800
There's an arrow. An arrow sticking out of the hulk of a chest.
1033
01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:34,320
Will there be a rescue? Seems silly to think so.
1034
01:16:34,400 --> 01:16:36,400
Maybe if I put my hands in here?
1035
01:16:36,520 --> 01:16:38,440
I'll find a wallet to identify these guys.
1036
01:16:38,520 --> 01:16:45,840
I can't bring myself to put my hand in this mess...and then I see swelling on my arm and
1037
01:16:45,840 --> 01:16:46,760
I pull at it
1038
01:16:46,960 --> 01:16:53,080
and I pull out a bit fat maggot. White maggot and I remember its scientific name.
1039
01:16:53,080 --> 01:16:58,800
Callitroga Hominixvorax. Hominixvorax means devourer of man – I pop it and then I have
1040
01:16:58,800 --> 01:17:01,720
to walk.
1041
01:17:01,800 --> 01:17:07,520
Where's the river? I walked for an hour, I don't find anything. I walk on.
1042
01:17:07,800 --> 01:17:13,480
I walk for the second hour, don't even cross a stream. Getting dehydrated.
1043
01:17:13,720 --> 01:17:18,000
One fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin and I can't find anything.
1044
01:17:18,120 --> 01:17:23,120
I'm getting very dehydrated now. The heat is intense and suddenly I look up
1045
01:17:23,120 --> 01:17:31,560
and see a thing that looks like a cucumber hanging off a vine. I pull it off and I suck
1046
01:17:31,720 --> 01:17:33,040
on it.
1047
01:17:33,080 --> 01:17:34,280
[Squelching]
1048
01:17:34,400 --> 01:17:39,560
It tastes bitter but I don't think it's toxic so I suck on about thirty of these because
1049
01:17:39,560 --> 01:17:43,080
I have to
1050
01:17:43,080 --> 01:17:51,560
and then I reach an interesting state of inebriation. The forest becomes my brain.
1051
01:17:51,880 --> 01:17:57,360
Yeah I am moving, don't talk to me.
1052
01:17:57,520 --> 01:18:01,080
Now I have the impression that I'm seeing my thoughts
1053
01:18:01,080 --> 01:18:04,600
and then this slight hallucination changes
1054
01:18:05,040 --> 01:18:16,760
and I suddenly feel my arm groping around the universe, has torn open a corner
1055
01:18:17,000 --> 01:18:24,680
and that soon there will be an encounter and then I panic. I panic. Why did I tear that
1056
01:18:24,760 --> 01:18:25,760
corner open?
1057
01:18:25,880 --> 01:18:32,680
I'm not ready for this. No, not like that spider on his way last night with the snake.
1058
01:18:32,840 --> 01:18:34,800
And then a thought howls at me sadly.
1059
01:18:36,200 --> 01:18:38,800
Voice: Never part of nature
1060
01:18:38,880 --> 01:18:42,640
Loren: Yeah we were never part of nature!
1061
01:18:42,640 --> 01:18:45,320
No we're not part of nature are we?
1062
01:18:45,320 --> 01:18:46,800
I'm not part of nature.
1063
01:18:46,840 --> 01:18:51,400
David Farmer: a recognition that we are actually part of nature.
1064
01:18:51,400 --> 01:18:52,600
Loren: No. Come on.
1065
01:18:52,600 --> 01:18:58,360
David Farmer: part of nature, and we cannot escape from it, just as we cannot escape from
1066
01:18:58,480 --> 01:18:59,600
the planet.
1067
01:18:59,600 --> 01:19:04,560
Suddenly I jacked knife forward and fall on my stomach on rotting leaves.
1068
01:19:04,560 --> 01:19:13,200
I order myself to crawl but my body refuses to obey and I remain lying there thinking
1069
01:19:13,360 --> 01:19:16,720
of what will happen to me.
1070
01:19:16,720 --> 01:19:23,800
When I lose consciousness, who is going to eat me first? It will be the forest pigs,
1071
01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:25,560
tapirs
1072
01:19:25,960 --> 01:19:39,480
and then with an enormous force of will I raise my head and I see a lion marmoset, the
1073
01:19:39,480 --> 01:19:44,240
smallest of all primates
1074
01:19:44,240 --> 01:19:50,520
observing me from a palm frond with a little humid look in his eye, as if ready to burst
1075
01:19:50,520 --> 01:19:52,920
into tears.
1076
01:19:58,240 --> 01:20:03,240
but I know he will not weep
1077
01:20:03,480 --> 01:20:07,760
because only man weeps
1078
01:20:07,920 --> 01:20:12,680
My last conscious impression is the marmoset’s eyes.
1079
01:20:12,800 --> 01:20:17,360
Death is a bank of lights being switched off, a vast theatre in my head.
1080
01:20:17,520 --> 01:20:24,480
It grows like a cacophony, on and on and on
1081
01:20:24,720 --> 01:20:27,720
and then it dims, and then black.
1082
01:20:33,720 --> 01:20:41,800
Noma: Twinkle twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are
1083
01:20:41,920 --> 01:20:46,240
Like a diamond in the sky, Twinkle twinkle little star
1084
01:20:46,280 --> 01:20:50,720
How I wonder what you are.
1085
01:20:50,800 --> 01:20:58,760
[Heavy breathing]
1086
01:20:58,760 --> 01:21:03,840
[Humming]
1087
01:21:04,040 --> 01:21:14,200
[Singing]
1088
01:21:15,240 --> 01:21:19,280
The Mayoruna found him yards from the stream
1089
01:21:19,440 --> 01:21:23,240
and they carried him back unconscious to the village and laid him in a hammock,
1090
01:21:23,360 --> 01:21:27,560
where he lay in a fever for five days, under the hands of two shaman who gently turned
1091
01:21:27,760 --> 01:21:29,120
him over
1092
01:21:29,120 --> 01:21:32,960
and sucked the maggots and thorns from his back and the demons from his forehead
1093
01:21:32,960 --> 01:21:38,720
and stood either side of his hammock, chanting, chanting.
1094
01:21:40,200 --> 01:21:43,120
He slept, woke and slept again and woke again
1095
01:21:43,120 --> 01:21:48,000
at one point he thought he saw a face in the doorway.
1096
01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:49,600
Loren: Barnacle
1097
01:21:49,960 --> 01:21:56,080
Simon: Drifting between dream and reality.
1098
01:21:57,240 --> 01:22:02,040
When finally he awoke it was morning. The fever was gone and he was alone.
1099
01:22:02,960 --> 01:22:08,040
He swung out of his hammock and staggered tentatively out into the clearing
1100
01:22:08,320 --> 01:22:13,200
and there in the half light was the entire community, standing waiting,
1101
01:22:13,360 --> 01:22:20,400
their faces pulled down by an invisible weight, thinner, weary. What were they waiting for?
1102
01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:25,400
He tottered past another hut, looked in and then stopped as if electrocuted.
1103
01:22:25,400 --> 01:22:27,520
Loren: Red Cheeks. Red Cheeks.
1104
01:22:27,520 --> 01:22:32,520
Simon: Red Cheeks was looking at him.
1105
01:22:32,720 --> 01:22:36,760
What Loren saw was a body sewn into a funeral basket. Red Cheeks face could be glimpsed
1106
01:22:36,760 --> 01:22:38,280
inside convulsed
1107
01:22:38,880 --> 01:22:42,720
and his head seemed to be smoking and smouldering but as Loren looked closer
1108
01:22:42,800 --> 01:22:45,960
it was not smoke it was just the movement of millions of bugs in and out of his eye
1109
01:22:45,960 --> 01:22:46,760
sockets.
1110
01:22:46,760 --> 01:22:51,280
He backed out of the hut and turned and across the clearing he saw Barnacle in a shaft of
1111
01:22:51,560 --> 01:22:52,480
light
1112
01:22:52,840 --> 01:22:57,840
observing him, making sure, making sure that he witnessed all of this.
1113
01:22:59,440 --> 01:23:02,800
Loren: You saved my life. Why?
1114
01:23:02,800 --> 01:23:05,200
Simon: Barnacle's gaze didn't waiver
1115
01:23:07,240 --> 01:23:13,960
Loren: Okay, I wanted to resist him so I turned my back when something came into my mind nonetheless
1116
01:23:13,960 --> 01:23:16,640
Voice: They were holding us still, still in time.
1117
01:23:16,800 --> 01:23:21,200
Loren: They were holding us still, still in time. What did he mean? I turned back.
1118
01:23:21,400 --> 01:23:26,320
I get it, okay it's a political thing, he's put down some political insurrection, that's
1119
01:23:26,320 --> 01:23:27,840
it, okay.
1120
01:23:28,080 --> 01:23:29,080
I get it. What?
1121
01:23:29,520 --> 01:23:31,280
Voice: When they burn up, we move away.
1122
01:23:32,240 --> 01:23:36,400
Loren: What burns up? - And then suddenly with incredible violence he set all the huts
1123
01:23:36,400 --> 01:23:37,400
on fire.
1124
01:23:37,520 --> 01:23:43,360
Red Cheeks body is going up in flames now! What's going on? Okay, we're moving on
1125
01:23:43,360 --> 01:23:47,160
into the forest [heavy breathing]
1126
01:23:47,720 --> 01:23:55,680
Okay we walk, what's happening? Come on. Push yourself. Where are we going?
1127
01:23:55,960 --> 01:24:04,200
We walk all day and all the time I'm straining, hoping to hear a plane, every time I see a
1128
01:24:04,200 --> 01:24:05,000
little blue sky
1129
01:24:05,160 --> 01:24:09,840
in the canopy, I want to even to see a vapour trail in the sky. I see nothing.
1130
01:24:09,840 --> 01:24:15,560
Come on. We stop at sundown. There's no evening meal, we sleep on the forest floor
1131
01:24:15,560 --> 01:24:20,520
nothing to eat the next morning and it's the same the next day.
1132
01:24:20,520 --> 01:24:22,200
We drink water.
1133
01:24:23,480 --> 01:24:32,200
Somehow in my anger I force myself to walk behind Barnacle. Where are we going? I communicated.
1134
01:24:32,600 --> 01:24:33,400
To the beginning?
1135
01:24:35,240 --> 01:24:36,240
Voice: The beginning
1136
01:24:36,400 --> 01:24:42,160
Loren: Okay. Well what are we going to find in your goddam beginning?
1137
01:24:42,360 --> 01:24:46,480
And he walks on inexorably and suddenly I realise his answer might be death.
1138
01:24:46,480 --> 01:24:51,960
Death is awaiting us in the beginning. I look at the people, searching for signs of resistance
1139
01:24:51,960 --> 01:24:55,320
but they drift past me as if I'm invisible
1140
01:24:55,480 --> 01:25:01,360
Day four, day five, the older people are limping. Women break off branches as they pass
1141
01:25:01,400 --> 01:25:06,640
with fruit to feed their children who lull vacant-eyed over their parents' shoulders.
1142
01:25:06,680 --> 01:25:10,240
This is madness. We drink water incessantly.
1143
01:25:12,720 --> 01:25:18,920
I'm at the back now, I'm gonna take leave of Barnacle and his people.
1144
01:25:18,920 --> 01:25:24,080
I'll follow them to the first navigable body of water. I'll use a log as a raft.
1145
01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:30,120
Don't listen to my thoughts! Don't hear my thoughts. Don't hear them. I'll take my chances.
1146
01:25:30,120 --> 01:25:37,960
And then suddenly one morning...[sniffing] No that's a human scent. It is.
1147
01:25:37,960 --> 01:25:44,000
Yeah it is. Smoke. Could it be decomposition
1148
01:25:44,000 --> 01:25:50,800
a village, a settlement. Maybe they'll have a boat!
1149
01:25:50,840 --> 01:25:58,760
a radio! Come on! Then suddenly a crowd of tribes people stormed through the trees
1150
01:25:58,760 --> 01:26:01,320
and we're surrounded by another tribe of Mayoruna
1151
01:26:01,320 --> 01:26:06,800
less gaunt, less emaciated. The children are running, hugging and jumping, playing.
1152
01:26:07,000 --> 01:26:12,000
People greeting each other and smiling and Barnacle disappears into a group of women
1153
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:12,960
and children.
1154
01:26:13,040 --> 01:26:18,160
They're his family and Tutti runs across and hugs the old man and he throws him up on to
1155
01:26:18,160 --> 01:26:18,880
his shoulders.
1156
01:26:18,880 --> 01:26:26,640
Why have I never guessed, Tutti is Barnacle's son and then suddenly somebody offers me some
1157
01:26:26,640 --> 01:26:28,400
food
1158
01:26:28,400 --> 01:26:34,280
and I'm eating
1159
01:26:34,440 --> 01:26:42,280
[Eating noises]
1160
01:26:50,080 --> 01:26:53,560
Loren: Great gobs of food are hurting my intestines
1161
01:26:53,560 --> 01:26:58,000
but my blood sugar level it is rising. Come on.
1162
01:26:58,000 --> 01:27:02,640
I feel drunk with momentary survival. Drunk with food.
1163
01:27:02,640 --> 01:27:09,120
I look at the new members. There's a shaman I haven't seen before, another conical hat
1164
01:27:09,600 --> 01:27:10,520
of leaves
1165
01:27:10,800 --> 01:27:12,200
he's wearing a pair of shorts...Shorts?
1166
01:27:16,200 --> 01:27:26,640
Tattered shorts. He's wearing a pair of tattered shorts. I hold my breath I hardly dare hope
1167
01:27:26,640 --> 01:27:31,680
and I put my hand on his shoulder and he turns and I say to him.
1168
01:27:31,680 --> 01:27:43,120
Hola, mi nombre es Loren. Loren. Fala Portuguese? No? Fala Portuguese?
1169
01:27:44,680 --> 01:27:49,200
I turn away, disappointment bigger then suddenly over my shoulder I hear.
1170
01:27:49,200 --> 01:27:54,480
Cambio: Loren, sim. Bem-vindo, Loren, Cambio
1171
01:27:54,560 --> 01:27:58,160
Loren: speaking to me in Portuguese. He says, Welcome, Loren, welcome.
1172
01:27:58,160 --> 01:28:01,160
And then Cambio. Cambio means ‘Over’ in radio parlance.
1173
01:28:01,280 --> 01:28:06,200
He just greeted me with - Welcome Loren Over - I want to hug him
1174
01:28:06,200 --> 01:28:12,280
and then I want to say 'listen I got dropped here by a plane. I've been with these people
1175
01:28:12,280 --> 01:28:13,480
and-' Calm down!
1176
01:28:13,480 --> 01:28:18,760
Calm down. Ask him something simple. Come on.
1177
01:28:18,760 --> 01:28:23,480
Is this your village? é esta a sua aldeia?
1178
01:28:23,480 --> 01:28:27,440
Cambio: Sim, minha aldeia, Cambio.
1179
01:28:27,440 --> 01:28:35,160
Loren: My village. Over. So all these people they're relatives of yours. Então essas pessoas
1180
01:28:35,360 --> 01:28:36,920
são sua família?
1181
01:28:36,920 --> 01:28:38,640
Cambio: Meu povo, Cambio
1182
01:28:38,920 --> 01:28:45,560
Loren: Well how come you speak Portuguese? Como que você fala português?
1183
01:28:46,920 --> 01:28:51,480
[He replies in Portuguese]
1184
01:28:56,440 --> 01:29:03,480
Loren: and then he tells me six years ago, gunmen came, working for developers,
1185
01:29:03,520 --> 01:29:09,920
they attacked the village. Shot my wife. My children. And I got to a place of safety in
1186
01:29:09,920 --> 01:29:11,440
a mission
1187
01:29:13,160 --> 01:29:23,080
and I got work as a servant for a radio operator. Over. And from him I learnt Portuguese. Over.
1188
01:29:23,080 --> 01:29:25,040
Seu nome? Your name?
1189
01:29:25,040 --> 01:29:28,640
Cambio: Eles me chamaram Cambio. Cambio.
1190
01:29:28,640 --> 01:29:31,480
Loren: “They call me Over. Over”
1191
01:29:31,480 --> 01:29:36,800
Smoke hits my eyes. I turn around a vast fire has been built.
1192
01:29:36,880 --> 01:29:41,760
The two communities are standing round it. Others are walking towards it.
1193
01:29:41,760 --> 01:29:47,640
They're holding all their belongings. Axes, manioc graters, calabashes, fishhooks, fishnets
1194
01:29:47,640 --> 01:29:51,800
and they're putting them in a pile next to the fire.
1195
01:29:52,080 --> 01:29:59,120
oh and look at this headdresses eagret feathers and bows and arrows and pots and trophy skulls
1196
01:29:59,160 --> 01:30:04,320
things the tribe would never needlessly abandon. Painstakingly crafted objects
1197
01:30:04,320 --> 01:30:10,000
things the tribe needs for its survival and Barnacle is overseeing this all. Watching
1198
01:30:10,080 --> 01:30:11,080
it all.
1199
01:30:11,520 --> 01:30:12,480
Loren: What's happening Cambio?
1200
01:30:12,560 --> 01:30:14,240
Cambio: A cerimônia , over.
1201
01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:16,760
Loren: “A ceremony, over.” For what?
1202
01:30:16,760 --> 01:30:18,720
Cambio: Estamos voltando
1203
01:30:18,880 --> 01:30:21,320
Loren: "We're returning" - he says
1204
01:30:21,600 --> 01:30:29,000
"These things die here so we can return." What do you mean? You're going back in time?
1205
01:30:29,920 --> 01:30:30,920
No?
1206
01:30:31,280 --> 01:30:33,720
Cambio: Não, não vou viajar no tempo. Vou voltar no tempo, cambio
1207
01:30:34,200 --> 01:30:39,080
Loren: "Not going back. Returning" Sounds like return ticket. So you're going to destroy
1208
01:30:39,080 --> 01:30:40,200
all these things?
1209
01:30:40,200 --> 01:30:42,480
Everything the tribe has?
1210
01:30:43,160 --> 01:30:51,840
“The spirits are stopping us" He says. "They're jealous. They stop us. They're jealous"
1211
01:30:51,840 --> 01:30:53,000
and then he says
1212
01:30:53,000 --> 01:30:56,000
Cambio: Eles seguram a gente no tempo.Cambio.
1213
01:30:56,400 --> 01:31:03,640
Loren: "They hold us still. Still in time" The same words that Barnacle used.
1214
01:31:03,640 --> 01:31:10,480
Cambio, listen, the headman here, with the boy on his shoulders. He told me with the
1215
01:31:10,480 --> 01:31:11,840
same words
1216
01:31:11,840 --> 01:31:18,280
about your return to the beginning, except I don't speak Mayoruna. Do you understand?
1217
01:31:18,280 --> 01:31:20,600
There's a silence
1218
01:31:20,640 --> 01:31:29,080
Loren: "Maybe he spoke to you in the other language. The old language" No, no he didn't
1219
01:31:29,280 --> 01:31:31,520
speak to me. I think he spoke to me without words.
1220
01:31:34,040 --> 01:31:41,880
Loren: "Yes, that is the other language. The old language" - old language?
1221
01:31:41,920 --> 01:31:46,920
What do you mean? It comes from another time? I mean how do you learn it? - I have so many questions.
1222
01:31:46,920 --> 01:31:57,040
"No, no it's not learned. It's remembered.The old ones remember it. Over"
1223
01:31:57,520 --> 01:32:02,400
And he looks at me with a newfound respect that I should communicate like this
1224
01:32:02,400 --> 01:32:05,760
but I can feel that Barnacle is looking at me. He's looking at the back of my head.
1225
01:32:05,760 --> 01:32:11,800
I turn and I see him. He has in his hands - he's looking at me - in his hands is an
1226
01:32:11,840 --> 01:32:12,840
arrow.
1227
01:32:12,880 --> 01:32:18,000
It's the arrow that he gave me and now he is holding it above his head because he wants
1228
01:32:18,240 --> 01:32:20,080
me to witness this
1229
01:32:20,200 --> 01:32:25,120
and in one movement he brings it down and snaps it in two.
1230
01:32:25,280 --> 01:32:30,360
He throws it on the fire and this signals a frenzy of destruction. People leaping on
1231
01:32:30,360 --> 01:32:31,320
the pile
1232
01:32:31,560 --> 01:32:35,480
and stamping on things with their feet, what they can't break with their feet they break
1233
01:32:35,480 --> 01:32:36,480
with their hands.
1234
01:32:36,720 --> 01:32:42,480
They crush the pots, grind them and smash the trophy skulls, snap the bows and arrows.
1235
01:32:42,480 --> 01:32:48,200
They shatter the whole pile, the bits of wood, bone, husks, feather, loose human teeth strung
1236
01:32:48,240 --> 01:32:49,240
necklaces.
1237
01:32:49,360 --> 01:32:53,240
My god. Everything that's beautiful and useful onto the fire.
1238
01:32:53,240 --> 01:32:59,280
And the flames are leaping up. There's no hesitation. There's not even a look of regret
1239
01:33:01,960 --> 01:33:10,680
Loren: “We are loosening our bonds" says Cambio "Getting freer and freer. Sailing in
1240
01:33:10,680 --> 01:33:11,680
time, over.”
1241
01:33:12,240 --> 01:33:16,680
Loren: What will happen when you get to your destination Cambio? What will happen then?
1242
01:33:17,000 --> 01:33:23,200
Loren: To hell with all this shit! He says and walks away.
1243
01:33:23,200 --> 01:33:28,960
God, imagine us burning our possessions so as not to remain still in time!
1244
01:33:29,000 --> 01:33:35,240
And I close my eyes and I picture bonfires like this along some affluent American street.
1245
01:33:35,240 --> 01:33:39,400
You know, people dragging out there belongings into the front yard,
1246
01:33:39,400 --> 01:33:44,400
you know, appliances, toys, spraying it in gasoline and then setting light to it. Yeah.
1247
01:33:44,400 --> 01:33:51,720
A bonfire in one front yard, and another and another. All down the street. All through
1248
01:33:51,720 --> 01:33:53,080
the neighbourhood
1249
01:33:53,080 --> 01:33:58,360
and the next and the next. Half a city on fire. All of a culture,
1250
01:33:58,360 --> 01:34:03,400
the most materialistic and leisure minded in the world up in flames. A city in flames.
1251
01:34:03,400 --> 01:34:05,480
[emergency sirens]
1252
01:34:05,480 --> 01:34:12,440
Where are we? Washington! Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House, on fire! Library of Congress,
1253
01:34:12,440 --> 01:34:12,920
on fire!
1254
01:34:12,920 --> 01:34:20,200
Burning the past! Burning it all. Freeing itself, taking off, soaring,
1255
01:34:20,200 --> 01:34:27,880
carried by the vehicle of the sacrificial, purifying flames! Carried where? Who knows?
1256
01:34:27,880 --> 01:34:31,000
Maybe I'll live to find the answer!
1257
01:34:36,040 --> 01:34:37,960
Have we got rid of anything? Have we got rid of shit!
1258
01:34:38,400 --> 01:34:39,760
It's all plastic!
1259
01:34:39,920 --> 01:34:42,720
Okay we can smash glass! [glass smashing]
1260
01:34:43,200 --> 01:34:45,840
But can we get rid of this fucking stuff? Can we?!
1261
01:34:47,840 --> 01:34:48,880
Jesus Christ!
1262
01:34:51,680 --> 01:34:52,640
Can we get rid of our past? I don't know!
1263
01:34:53,800 --> 01:34:55,880
Lets get rid of this mutherfucking thing!
1264
01:34:58,920 --> 01:35:06,040
Come on! We don't need it. There's just too much. There's too much!
1265
01:35:07,480 --> 01:35:08,520
Oh god!
1266
01:35:10,320 --> 01:35:14,560
There's too much to get rid of!
1267
01:35:14,560 --> 01:35:16,080
Come on!
1268
01:35:17,920 --> 01:35:18,420
Come on!
1269
01:35:20,920 --> 01:35:23,120
Let's get rid of this fucking shit!
1270
01:35:23,200 --> 01:35:31,360
Are we gonna do it? How about this motherfuckers! It's all backed up. It's all in the fucking
1271
01:35:31,360 --> 01:35:32,800
Cloud!
1272
01:35:33,440 --> 01:35:37,920
Well fuck that. Put a fucking a hammer through this...[phone rings]
1273
01:35:45,960 --> 01:35:47,560
Simon: Hello
1274
01:35:48,920 --> 01:35:54,280
[door creaks open] Noma: Dadda I had a bad dream
1275
01:35:54,320 --> 01:35:56,920
Simon: Oh listen sweetie, go back to bed, I've got a
1276
01:35:56,920 --> 01:35:58,760
Noma: Why are you always speaking on your phone?
1277
01:35:58,800 --> 01:35:59,280
Simon: I'm just working
1278
01:35:59,280 --> 01:36:00,120
Noma: It's so boring
1279
01:36:00,120 --> 01:36:02,640
Simon: I know - hello? Who is this? Oh god
1280
01:36:04,480 --> 01:36:06,640
Noma: Can I play on your phone then?
1281
01:36:06,640 --> 01:36:09,120
Simon: Well, I'm not playing sweetie. Do you want some water?
1282
01:36:09,160 --> 01:36:12,560
Noma: No fizzy water
1283
01:36:12,600 --> 01:36:16,320
Simon: Well we don't have any fizzy water. Let's go
1284
01:36:16,320 --> 01:36:17,240
and get some from the tap
1285
01:36:17,280 --> 01:36:19,120
[tap running]
1286
01:36:19,120 --> 01:36:21,440
Simon: There you are. Drink it up
1287
01:36:21,440 --> 01:36:24,640
Noma: How long have I been asleep?
1288
01:36:24,640 --> 01:36:30,760
Simon: My sweetie I don't know. Maybe, half an hour. Something. You've got to go to sleep
1289
01:36:30,760 --> 01:36:31,760
now
1290
01:36:39,560 --> 01:36:43,120
Loren: I open my eyes, Cambio's here.
1291
01:36:43,120 --> 01:36:45,280
Cambio: Loren, Loren
1292
01:36:47,040 --> 01:36:49,440
Loren: "No Loren, over"
1293
01:36:49,440 --> 01:36:54,880
What are you talking about? Cambio, listen, I just got in to my hammock. I've been asleep
1294
01:36:54,880 --> 01:36:56,040
two minutes
1295
01:36:56,040 --> 01:37:00,560
after I've been in Barnacle's hut for hours.
1296
01:37:01,520 --> 01:37:09,360
I swing out of my hammock, I stand, I shiver, it's cold, it's night and then he says
1297
01:37:09,360 --> 01:37:11,760
Cambio: O comeco, cambio
1298
01:37:11,760 --> 01:37:17,800
Loren: the beginning. What do you mean? The ceremony is now? It's going to happen now?
1299
01:37:17,800 --> 01:37:23,320
Wait wait but Barnacle said it wasn't going to happen for weeks. I mean ceremony's happening
1300
01:37:23,320 --> 01:37:27,320
Cambio listen, what if there is nothing at the beginning? You know, what if the old one
1301
01:37:27,400 --> 01:37:28,360
is crazy?
1302
01:37:28,520 --> 01:37:31,160
What if we're all gonna die?
1303
01:37:33,400 --> 01:37:38,600
Cambio turns away and then he says "no, no there is no other way out the old belief has
1304
01:37:38,600 --> 01:37:39,960
to be proven true"
1305
01:37:40,600 --> 01:37:42,520
Cambio: Agora Lowen, Cambio.
1306
01:37:45,880 --> 01:37:53,320
Loren: "Come, come, come" He pulls me by the elbow out. There are tribesmen walking around
1307
01:37:53,320 --> 01:37:54,560
in the dark.
1308
01:37:54,560 --> 01:38:01,240
They've got there cat whiskers in and the community is making a huge long line all the
1309
01:38:01,240 --> 01:38:02,480
way across the village
1310
01:38:02,720 --> 01:38:09,520
"Agora Loren" I now know what it means, they've painted their bodies with black vegetable
1311
01:38:09,520 --> 01:38:10,920
dye.
1312
01:38:10,920 --> 01:38:16,680
It's begun. We watch and they begin to dance.
1313
01:38:20,520 --> 01:38:38,920
[clapping and rustling]
1314
01:38:38,920 --> 01:38:45,080
Standing behind them, they're moving together. Towards the beginning.
1315
01:38:45,120 --> 01:38:51,000
And suddenly Cambio is pulling me by my arm, we step in when there's a gap, we do
1316
01:38:52,280 --> 01:38:57,240
one, two, three, three to the left, two to the right, two back [clap]
1317
01:38:57,240 --> 01:39:04,240
one, one, two three, one, two, one, two, three [clap].
1318
01:39:04,240 --> 01:39:11,400
Okay, one, two, three, one, two [clap]. We clap hard and repeat. One, two, three, one,
1319
01:39:11,400 --> 01:39:12,760
two [clap]
1320
01:39:12,760 --> 01:39:23,040
Over and over. God. And now return [clap]. One, two, three, one, two [clap].
1321
01:39:23,040 --> 01:39:33,840
One two. It's hypnotic. One two. My mind starts to travel. How long have I been here? Two
1322
01:39:33,840 --> 01:39:35,320
weeks?
1323
01:39:35,320 --> 01:39:45,960
Two months? I don't know. I don't know time has collapsed. And then suddenly,
1324
01:39:46,000 --> 01:39:52,760
suddenly I'm back in front of Barnacle's hut the night before, standing in front of his
1325
01:39:53,000 --> 01:39:54,000
door.
1326
01:39:54,320 --> 01:40:02,040
I duck underneath and I see it's full of men smoking green cigars. Okay Barnacle's there
1327
01:40:02,040 --> 01:40:05,240
looking at me.
1328
01:40:05,480 --> 01:40:12,400
He invites me to sit and I know finally I can talk to him through Cambio.
1329
01:40:13,440 --> 01:40:22,920
We sit and he says "you have come here. Why?" Okay.
1330
01:40:23,240 --> 01:40:27,640
There's a silence.
1331
01:40:27,920 --> 01:40:36,600
I heard about your people and I wanted to photograph you to show others that you exist.
1332
01:40:36,920 --> 01:40:38,320
Cambio translates.
1333
01:40:39,480 --> 01:40:45,240
Okay, "why have you not left us, why have you not fled?" Okay, so I choose my words
1334
01:40:45,320 --> 01:40:45,820
carefully.
1335
01:40:47,120 --> 01:40:52,320
I wanted to witness your beginning.
1336
01:40:54,200 --> 01:41:02,080
Cambio translates and then...a thought is planted in my mind and Barnacle beams to me
1337
01:41:02,080 --> 01:41:10,920
that my staying makes the ceremony good and then he begins to talk again through Cambio
1338
01:41:11,480 --> 01:41:16,920
and he tells me that the tribe in all its forms has been moving for some time
1339
01:41:18,640 --> 01:41:26,520
and the only way out is the beginning and then I panic. Death feels very close
1340
01:41:26,520 --> 01:41:31,040
Cambio tell him, look, there's enough space in the forest, there's enough wilderness
1341
01:41:31,160 --> 01:41:37,680
that nobody is ever going to find you here. Nobody and I can speak to the Brazilian government.
1342
01:41:37,960 --> 01:41:42,720
I can speak to to FUNAI's indigenous affairs department. Basically, tell him. I can help.
1343
01:41:42,720 --> 01:41:47,880
Cambio translates. Barnacle looks at me and he says
1344
01:41:47,880 --> 01:41:58,720
"No no they will always come looking for that oil with guns and planes and alcohol"
1345
01:41:58,720 --> 01:42:04,000
So when will we be in the beginning then? How do we know?
1346
01:42:04,920 --> 01:42:11,600
"Haven't you noticed time is already falling off" he says. Yeah okay but what if we were
1347
01:42:11,600 --> 01:42:12,760
to hear a plane
1348
01:42:12,760 --> 01:42:14,120
right now when we're -
1349
01:42:15,840 --> 01:42:23,480
"We won't" he says "have you?" And suddenly I realise I can't remember the last time I
1350
01:42:23,480 --> 01:42:24,600
did hear a plane
1351
01:42:24,600 --> 01:42:30,720
or even saw a vapour trail in the sky. So does that mean we're close? Cambio?
1352
01:42:30,760 --> 01:42:36,600
"Very close" he says. "You can already feel it and you will see the signs".
1353
01:42:40,680 --> 01:42:48,760
Thanks buddy. He offers me a cigar and now they're talking all between them
1354
01:42:48,760 --> 01:42:53,320
and Cambio's translation skills are put to the test. They're talking about time
1355
01:42:53,400 --> 01:42:59,720
and they're saying that the beginning runs parallel to our time
1356
01:42:59,720 --> 01:43:06,320
and the ceremony is the door. I close my eyes.
1357
01:43:06,320 --> 01:43:13,000
They have talked a new time into reality. Why am I here? I ask this of Barnacle without
1358
01:43:13,000 --> 01:43:13,760
words.
1359
01:43:13,760 --> 01:43:16,480
Why am I here?
1360
01:43:16,480 --> 01:43:22,960
And then a thought blooms in my mind and words cluster to it.
1361
01:43:23,240 --> 01:43:25,160
Voice: You'll prove that it is real
1362
01:43:27,600 --> 01:43:33,520
Loren: You will prove that it is real.
1363
01:43:34,600 --> 01:43:43,200
You will prove that it is real.
1364
01:43:43,360 --> 01:43:54,040
We are here stamping with our feet. Thudding like a giant hand knocking on a door.
1365
01:43:56,760 --> 01:44:00,960
The door to the beginning.
1366
01:44:00,960 --> 01:44:03,640
We shall stamp through that door.
1367
01:44:04,840 --> 01:44:11,000
Rebecca Spooner: The Mayoruna describe the oil underneath the ground as the blood of
1368
01:44:11,000 --> 01:44:11,480
the earth
1369
01:44:11,480 --> 01:44:16,720
and they’re concerned like other indigenous people that if you suck out that blood,
1370
01:44:16,720 --> 01:44:20,120
the oil, the life source, and then the earth will cease to exist.
1371
01:44:20,400 --> 01:44:22,760
Ian McGilchrist: Earlier you talked about your child. And watching this little consciousness
1372
01:44:23,120 --> 01:44:24,000
grow….
1373
01:44:24,200 --> 01:44:28,040
Jess Worth: which is probably the most destructive source of fossil fuels in the world…
1374
01:44:28,040 --> 01:44:34,000
Loren: We danced all night. The sun explodes above the horizon.
1375
01:44:34,000 --> 01:44:37,840
A cycle has ended, another one is beginning.
1376
01:44:37,840 --> 01:44:44,760
2000 miles away to the east it's already noon
1377
01:44:44,760 --> 01:44:47,800
but here it is morning.
1378
01:44:50,040 --> 01:44:54,720
A morning loaded with events as yet unhappened
1379
01:44:54,800 --> 01:45:08,040
and one of those events, one of those events might be our death. Ahhhh [cheers]
1380
01:45:08,360 --> 01:45:14,800
We stop. Our bodies cry with exhaustion.
1381
01:45:14,800 --> 01:45:21,360
Barnacle appears a diadem of egret feathers on his head. I can just feel him passing down
1382
01:45:21,360 --> 01:45:23,360
the line.
1383
01:45:26,440 --> 01:45:33,520
I desperately need something to drink otherwise I'm going to keel over
1384
01:45:33,520 --> 01:45:39,960
and here comes a bowl of masato beer. I drink it. Take a gulp. It tastes of herbs. I pass
1385
01:45:39,960 --> 01:45:40,880
it on.
1386
01:45:40,880 --> 01:45:48,200
At the end of the line Barnacle is asking standard questions, which each man replies.
1387
01:45:48,200 --> 01:45:52,560
Come on, give me some of that buddy.
1388
01:45:55,040 --> 01:46:00,400
I have to pass it on again. What's happening? They're getting new names. New names for the
1389
01:46:00,400 --> 01:46:01,400
beginning.
1390
01:46:01,680 --> 01:46:07,000
Okay, okay. Here comes another one I'm gonna hang on to this one.
1391
01:46:08,680 --> 01:46:12,880
Barnacle repeats their names and with a thumb so red it looks blooded,
1392
01:46:12,880 --> 01:46:16,800
he plants a plot of red urucu on each forehead as he passes.
1393
01:46:22,200 --> 01:46:24,160
Now he's coming up to Cambio.
1394
01:46:26,120 --> 01:46:27,120
Cambio: Cambio
1395
01:46:27,360 --> 01:46:32,000
Loren: My friend christens himself and then he winks at me.
1396
01:46:32,000 --> 01:46:37,840
Now it's my turn. I don't want to lose my name. Even though it is just a memory
1397
01:46:37,840 --> 01:46:40,520
McIntyre.
1398
01:46:44,400 --> 01:46:48,120
He stamps my forehead and he passes on
1399
01:46:48,120 --> 01:46:50,360
"Tyre". Tyre. That'll do. That's okay. Just let me drink.
1400
01:46:55,840 --> 01:46:58,960
I begin to feel a little more human.
1401
01:47:00,240 --> 01:47:04,400
God I hope there's no drug in that drink.
1402
01:47:05,800 --> 01:47:07,080
There is.
1403
01:47:09,520 --> 01:47:13,920
I feel a numbing in my limbs,
1404
01:47:13,920 --> 01:47:20,360
my bones are liquifying, it's a liquefaction suggesting a kind of birth.
1405
01:47:20,360 --> 01:47:27,200
Very slowly from skeleton hard, they’re growing mellower, and sort of coming alive.
1406
01:47:30,120 --> 01:47:36,760
The air seems to separate into tiny flexible rivulets of oxygen.
1407
01:47:36,760 --> 01:47:42,920
I feel I could expand and contract distances at will.
1408
01:47:42,920 --> 01:47:49,000
I try to stop thinking. Come on. No thinking. Open myself completely to the present moment
1409
01:47:49,040 --> 01:47:54,120
and then I get, I feel like there's two of me.
1410
01:47:54,160 --> 01:47:57,240
I get a taste of something, now I'm in triple here.
1411
01:48:00,080 --> 01:48:06,800
There's an awareness that's frighteningly immediate and overfilled with sensorial stimuli.
1412
01:48:06,800 --> 01:48:14,600
I try not to. Don't censor it. Don't censor it.
1413
01:48:14,600 --> 01:48:16,520
And then it vanishes. Cambio!
1414
01:48:16,520 --> 01:48:23,720
Wait Cambio. Where are you going? We're going to look at something? Okay.
1415
01:48:23,720 --> 01:48:29,400
There's a mighty croaking of frogs behind a hut. We see all these shaman gathered around
1416
01:48:29,400 --> 01:48:31,120
a basket of frogs
1417
01:48:31,120 --> 01:48:35,480
and they're reaching in with their hands and spooning off the pimples on their backs,
1418
01:48:35,480 --> 01:48:39,720
a tiny transparent substance and collecting it in little bowls
1419
01:48:39,720 --> 01:48:45,480
and then suddenly Cambio reaches in his hand, takes a frog and shoots out a tongue [licking
1420
01:48:45,480 --> 01:48:46,360
[slurping noise]
1421
01:48:46,360 --> 01:48:51,480
"To see the beginning. Over" he says. To see the beginning Cambio?
1422
01:48:51,560 --> 01:49:00,560
"See the animals in it" okay. "Talk to them. See the jaguars, converse with them" okay,
1423
01:49:01,240 --> 01:49:02,240
okay
1424
01:49:02,440 --> 01:49:05,400
and now other people are taking the frogs and they're licking the backs, the pimples
1425
01:49:05,600 --> 01:49:06,560
on the backs,
1426
01:49:06,560 --> 01:49:12,040
which are weeping like so many ulcers and then oh my god this guy's got a knife of chonta
1427
01:49:12,040 --> 01:49:13,040
palm.
1428
01:49:13,040 --> 01:49:18,400
Now that is as sharp as a piece of glass. Oh no I don't want to watch him slice open
1429
01:49:18,400 --> 01:49:19,160
a frog.
1430
01:49:19,160 --> 01:49:25,760
So I turn away and when I turn back it's not the frog that he's slicing open it's his forearm.
1431
01:49:25,760 --> 01:49:28,120
Oh god. Come on [grunts]
1432
01:49:32,080 --> 01:49:40,120
Two people, they're opening it out and they're pouring the liquid right into his bloodstream
1433
01:49:40,120 --> 01:49:43,200
and other people are opening up their arms. They’re going to see the animals now.
1434
01:49:43,200 --> 01:49:46,200
Cambio's face is pearled up with sweat, the drugs working in him.
1435
01:49:46,200 --> 01:49:51,720
"Plants grow inside me!" He says, with such conviction, I expect bromeliads to come out
1436
01:49:51,720 --> 01:49:52,760
of his chest.
1437
01:49:52,760 --> 01:49:57,440
Oh, he keels over. You okay buddy? And now everybody.
1438
01:49:57,880 --> 01:50:07,360
Now the whole clearing is full of stumbling, cawing, barking, growling, shrieking men [shrieks]
1439
01:50:07,360 --> 01:50:13,040
and although I haven't had any of this I feel like an animal [his voice turns into an animal
1440
01:50:13,040 --> 01:50:21,240
[growl]
1441
01:50:21,240 --> 01:50:43,320
[Growling and roaring]
1442
01:50:44,880 --> 01:50:49,720
In front of me there's a man imitating a macaw so successfully it's in total contradiction
1443
01:50:49,720 --> 01:50:51,960
with his cat whiskers.
1444
01:50:51,960 --> 01:50:57,200
He invites me to look into his eyes but they're tunnels into some place I'll never visit.
1445
01:50:57,200 --> 01:51:04,160
So I turn away and I shut my eyes and I try to see my version of the beginning
1446
01:51:04,160 --> 01:51:14,000
but I meet no fabulous beasts, no mythical creatures. I see man walking, crossing, re-crossing,
1447
01:51:14,000 --> 01:51:19,720
trying to communicate with, he's crossing, coming forward, in a landscape fogged up.
1448
01:51:19,720 --> 01:51:25,600
No it's not a landscape, it's not territory, it's time. Our time.
1449
01:51:25,600 --> 01:51:34,560
Across the fog, a silhouette coming towards me. It's Barnacle. I open my eyes.
1450
01:51:34,560 --> 01:51:41,440
He's shadow seems to reach across the clearing and he's saying to me that these things are
1451
01:51:41,440 --> 01:51:42,360
truly happening.
1452
01:51:42,360 --> 01:51:50,280
Time is sloughing off. Well what am I supposed to do? Why am I here?
1453
01:51:50,280 --> 01:51:54,120
I'm supposed to be your authenticator.
1454
01:51:54,240 --> 01:51:57,360
Voice: You'll prove that it is real
1455
01:51:57,360 --> 01:52:04,720
Loren: No! I am not a cell! I am not a molecule! I'm not an ant, blindly obeying nature!
1456
01:52:06,920 --> 01:52:12,800
I'm a modern man!
1457
01:52:12,800 --> 01:52:16,360
You think that time comes in objects like milk in mothers?
1458
01:52:16,360 --> 01:52:22,600
Do you think waltzing around 100 square miles of bush is going to take us back in time?
1459
01:52:22,600 --> 01:52:25,880
Someone's got to denounce this craziness because we're all going to die.
1460
01:52:25,880 --> 01:52:31,760
I'm going to start a one man insurrection. If I'm to survive, I've got to pump out of
1461
01:52:31,760 --> 01:52:32,720
my psyche
1462
01:52:32,720 --> 01:52:34,680
a massively self-generated sense of who I am.
1463
01:52:34,680 --> 01:52:42,480
So come on. One times one is one. Two times two is four. Three times three is nine.
1464
01:52:43,040 --> 01:52:47,720
Six. No. Twenty six. No!
1465
01:52:47,840 --> 01:52:53,640
To recapture myself, I turn to face the forest. It's a jumble of trees and leaves but I see
1466
01:52:53,640 --> 01:52:54,600
a lupuna.
1467
01:52:54,600 --> 01:52:59,560
What's its latin name? You know perfectly well. It's su - ma - and then suddenly a new
1468
01:52:59,880 --> 01:53:01,440
sensation emerges in me
1469
01:53:01,720 --> 01:53:08,720
but it's not one of sadness, or fresh disaster, I become aware that while I could flee.
1470
01:53:09,480 --> 01:53:17,200
I have no interest in doing so. Come on! Through the forest, down the river, back to your world.
1471
01:53:17,200 --> 01:53:21,880
Yeah but escape from what into what? Well just - back!
1472
01:53:22,720 --> 01:53:29,360
What lies ahead is the same river and the same plants but now it's empty of modern humankind.
1473
01:53:29,360 --> 01:53:36,400
No! Come on! No one like me is out there. Yes there is! Us!
1474
01:53:36,800 --> 01:53:43,400
But listen, the civilised world hasn’t disappeared - what do you mean? - It's simply not appeared
1475
01:53:43,400 --> 01:53:44,440
yet.
1476
01:53:46,480 --> 01:53:51,920
We are the first humans in a territory of unnamed, uncounted life forms.
1477
01:53:51,920 --> 01:53:58,200
A people taken to the beginning by Barnacle - don't talk! - And I have gone with them.
1478
01:53:58,360 --> 01:54:04,360
You? I have not. Just go...
1479
01:54:08,560 --> 01:54:13,080
Time passes, a lot of time passes.
1480
01:54:17,240 --> 01:54:24,160
Eventually Cambio rubs his hands over his face and lumbers over towards me,
1481
01:54:26,280 --> 01:54:30,040
collapses beside me. Hi Buddy.
1482
01:54:36,000 --> 01:54:41,440
And although my eyes are shut I know that Barnacle is looking at me and I open them
1483
01:54:42,360 --> 01:54:49,440
and his gaze is opaque and sphinx-like, I turn to Cambio and say
1484
01:54:51,040 --> 01:54:53,840
translate this Cambio, ask him...
1485
01:54:53,840 --> 01:54:59,760
Quando vamos morrer? When are we gonna die?
1486
01:54:59,760 --> 01:55:03,440
I just want to know. Okay? I wanna face it.
1487
01:55:04,840 --> 01:55:15,160
Cambio translates and then suddenly Barnacle's hand takes my arm and he taps my arm with a touch that's hard,
1488
01:55:15,160 --> 01:55:17,440
sure, certain
1489
01:55:22,120 --> 01:55:31,640
“Nao morrer.” Nao morrer? Not to die. Not to die.
1490
01:55:36,360 --> 01:55:41,400
The cold wing of death has lifted, but it’s still so close I feel the hairs pricking
1491
01:55:41,400 --> 01:55:42,840
up on the back of my neck,
1492
01:55:42,880 --> 01:55:45,240
anticipating its return.
1493
01:55:45,240 --> 01:55:47,520
But then my body seems to lose its solid state
1494
01:55:47,640 --> 01:55:52,400
and then I feel a wonderful easing of pressure.
1495
01:55:59,480 --> 01:56:01,040
Barnacle pulls me up.
1496
01:56:11,280 --> 01:56:13,040
We walk into the forest.
1497
01:56:18,360 --> 01:56:24,640
He walks ahead of me, rolling his shoulders like an old man fighting stiffness.
1498
01:56:25,800 --> 01:56:35,520
Two old men. And I can't tell how long it is before we reach the river,
1499
01:56:37,680 --> 01:56:45,640
along which we walk, we walk and walk
1500
01:56:47,560 --> 01:56:53,000
and then suddenly he stops in front of an enormous curve and reach going on and on and
1501
01:56:53,000 --> 01:56:54,000
he says
1502
01:56:54,800 --> 01:56:55,680
[Barnacle speaks]
1503
01:56:55,680 --> 01:56:57,120
and I know it means "look"
1504
01:56:57,160 --> 01:56:58,920
and so I do and he points
1505
01:57:00,800 --> 01:57:07,040
and an invisible change of lenses occurs and my eyes tumble forward 500 yards
1506
01:57:07,040 --> 01:57:14,280
and the sound of the water changes and then it's as if my eyes keep on going forward through
1507
01:57:14,480 --> 01:57:16,000
the trees
1508
01:57:16,000 --> 01:57:23,480
and I sense that the rising mountains beyond, where the source of the river is, and I seem
1509
01:57:23,480 --> 01:57:24,360
to be
1510
01:57:25,520 --> 01:57:33,720
moving towards it at tremendous speed but then suddenly a message comes from that source
1511
01:57:33,720 --> 01:57:41,560
that is wordless but so gigantic that it fills all the space between here and there.
1512
01:57:42,000 --> 01:57:48,280
Inside and outside, past, future and fuses the source and the beginning,
1513
01:57:49,200 --> 01:57:56,440
above, below, inside, outside to one notion.
1514
01:57:58,160 --> 01:58:05,440
The beginning - beams Barnacle. He turns and faces me
1515
01:58:05,760 --> 01:58:10,400
and he explains, still without words, that he cannot let me go, not after I've been
1516
01:58:10,400 --> 01:58:11,520
part of this.
1517
01:58:13,400 --> 01:58:20,000
So you heard me at the back of that march. You know I - I whisper without words.
1518
01:58:20,000 --> 01:58:25,000
"We know" he says and I understand.
1519
01:58:25,000 --> 01:58:31,040
Just as Barnacle undid my spell by running counter-clockwise, I could be the crack between
1520
01:58:31,040 --> 01:58:33,880
here and there.
1521
01:58:34,000 --> 01:58:37,680
I could undo their return.
1522
01:58:38,600 --> 01:58:45,120
The crack through which another time, our time, might flood.
1523
01:58:48,360 --> 01:58:56,360
And with this narrative, he suddenly looks very naked and very tired, aged in fact, vulnerable
1524
01:58:56,360 --> 01:59:03,760
and he walks away back towards the other naked, vulnerable people in the forest.
1525
01:59:05,120 --> 01:59:13,480
Until just hours ago I was a modern man, activated by the pressures of my civilisation
1526
01:59:13,480 --> 01:59:21,200
crowded inside its limits. Barnacle and his people were even more pressured by the advance
1527
01:59:21,200 --> 01:59:23,480
of my civilisation
1528
01:59:23,480 --> 01:59:31,240
because their only alternative was flight, only alternative is flight?
1529
01:59:31,240 --> 01:59:38,600
No now the certainty blooms in every leaf and every blade of grass that
1530
01:59:38,600 --> 01:59:42,000
we are alone.
1531
01:59:42,480 --> 01:59:44,680
"Tyre!" He calls me
1532
01:59:44,680 --> 01:59:48,400
and I nod reassuringly.
1533
01:59:48,680 --> 01:59:51,240
I pad back to the village
1534
01:59:52,720 --> 02:00:02,560
Back to captivity, while the song of the forest rises [insect noises and music]
1535
02:00:04,800 --> 02:00:10,280
It gains in richness and melody.
1536
02:00:13,800 --> 02:00:24,800
My prison, my beautiful prison is singing, singing.
1537
02:00:26,840 --> 02:00:29,080
[Thunder rolls]
1538
02:00:29,080 --> 02:00:34,840
Simon: That night a storm shook the trees and rain lashed the canopy so violently
1539
02:00:34,840 --> 02:00:40,400
that liquid columns of downpour pierced through. Flashes bathed the treetops in apocalyptic
1540
02:00:40,400 --> 02:00:41,400
blue light
1541
02:00:41,400 --> 02:00:46,360
and the water was rising incredibly fast, whipping with unexpected strength
1542
02:00:46,360 --> 02:00:50,640
and the trees swamping their roots, overflowing the forest floor.
1543
02:00:50,680 --> 02:00:56,320
It rose with a surge that forced into action all the animals that couldn't count on trees
1544
02:00:56,320 --> 02:00:57,320
for their protection
1545
02:00:57,320 --> 02:01:05,120
and so they ran, stampeding, hurtling, heading for higher ground.
1546
02:01:05,120 --> 02:01:19,720
[Typing] Loren: Caicaque Barnacle. Tribu Matses. Cachoeira Esperanza. Ultra –Orientla Cordeillera.
1547
02:01:19,720 --> 02:01:26,960
Dear Barnacle, I don’t expect this letter to reach you,
1548
02:01:27,400 --> 02:01:32,880
and even if it did you couldn’t read it without the help of someone like Cambio (Hola
1549
02:01:32,880 --> 02:01:35,400
Cambio).
1550
02:01:35,480 --> 02:01:43,920
Still, writing it makes me feel that you are alive.
1551
02:01:44,040 --> 02:01:45,280
[Storm breaks]
1552
02:01:45,280 --> 02:01:49,600
Simon: McIntyre was almost knocked down by the traffic of tribes people.
1553
02:01:49,600 --> 02:01:53,200
He ran into the surrounding trees and found himself in water up to his knees.
1554
02:01:53,200 --> 02:01:57,800
He was nearly swept off his feet and then he was hit in one knee by a floating object.
1555
02:01:58,320 --> 02:02:03,960
Two logs mashed together with bark fibre and he fell across the raft without thinking of
1556
02:02:03,960 --> 02:02:05,040
clinging to it
1557
02:02:05,400 --> 02:02:09,440
and the current dragged them both through the stream of low trees and beyond
1558
02:02:09,440 --> 02:02:15,480
and he paddled desperately, trying to steer himself back to his new family but then
1559
02:02:15,640 --> 02:02:20,600
he realised, he had unconsciously opted for escape.
1560
02:02:20,600 --> 02:02:24,360
He was pulled into the main river and the repeated lightening revealed a frothing, boiling
1561
02:02:24,360 --> 02:02:25,400
purple mass of water.
1562
02:02:25,400 --> 02:02:27,720
Return was now impossible.
1563
02:02:28,720 --> 02:02:36,080
Still of all the thoughts tumbling through his mind, his most anxious was about the headman.
1564
02:02:36,080 --> 02:02:37,080
Barnacle.
1565
02:02:42,800 --> 02:02:50,800
Loren: Dear Barnacle, You are a scientist in your way, as I am in mine.
1566
02:02:50,880 --> 02:02:58,240
But your attitude is that everything around us is alive and therefore reachable.
1567
02:02:58,600 --> 02:03:05,000
Nothing is forbidden. That’s why you can travel in time.
1568
02:03:07,760 --> 02:03:11,200
I want to know about time. I want to know about it.
1569
02:03:11,240 --> 02:03:17,840
I want to know about this Earth, know about the source of this great river and the natural
1570
02:03:18,040 --> 02:03:19,040
world it sustains.
1571
02:03:19,720 --> 02:03:25,880
But for you, it is less important that you know about all these things.
1572
02:03:26,240 --> 02:03:30,440
What’s important is what you do with them.
1573
02:03:30,520 --> 02:03:37,800
You are doing something with time, not agonising about understanding it.
1574
02:03:38,440 --> 02:03:47,560
That’s why I know somehow you are present here and you will somehow be able to learn the
1575
02:03:47,560 --> 02:03:52,280
contents of this letter..
1576
02:03:54,200 --> 02:04:00,760
Simon: The morning came fast, the grim, grim grey light brought by the rain
1577
02:04:00,760 --> 02:04:03,520
down onto the frothing water, he saw a mudflat,
1578
02:04:03,800 --> 02:04:10,440
paddled towards it, crawled out and sat for a few moments in the morning light
1579
02:04:10,440 --> 02:04:16,400
and then McIntyre knew, with a certainty that allowed no room for hope or doubt,
1580
02:04:16,400 --> 02:04:23,520
as if the headman himself was making sure that he had the news, that Barnacle was gone.
1581
02:04:23,800 --> 02:04:27,320
He was dead. Drowned.
1582
02:04:27,320 --> 02:04:34,920
Barnacle was gone and yet at the same time he was ineradicably present in everything
1583
02:04:34,920 --> 02:04:37,440
that surrounded him.
1584
02:04:37,440 --> 02:04:42,920
So close did he feel to him that he felt Barnacle’s features were somehow superimposed on his
1585
02:04:42,920 --> 02:04:43,600
own,
1586
02:04:43,600 --> 02:04:46,120
as if they were one person.
1587
02:04:47,520 --> 02:04:51,960
Dying, the headman had exited the daily physical sequence of time,
1588
02:04:51,960 --> 02:04:59,480
entering instead that space/time/mind continuum McIntyre had experienced.
1589
02:05:05,000 --> 02:05:07,200
They were travelling in it together.
1590
02:05:16,840 --> 02:05:21,880
And then the fantastic sensation, like others so recently experienced, faded.
1591
02:05:23,760 --> 02:05:31,840
He staggered out into the water, fell onto his balsa raft and drifted downstream.
1592
02:05:32,560 --> 02:05:35,920
[Water rushing]
1593
02:06:08,680 --> 02:06:15,240
Petru: Loren McIntyre died in 2003. And I did not see him before he died.
1594
02:06:15,440 --> 02:06:23,560
And we hadn’t lapsed, it simply so happened that we, as happens in life with people that
1595
02:06:24,000 --> 02:06:26,400
are important, you already know.
1596
02:06:26,400 --> 02:06:29,560
But then it becomes even more important to remember them,
1597
02:06:29,560 --> 02:06:34,720
and I was extremely, extremely – I said, why was I so foolish, not to jump on a plane
1598
02:06:34,800 --> 02:06:36,120
and go see him.
1599
02:06:36,120 --> 02:06:43,960
I think I was, er, secretly, frightened to see him weak. I had met him when he was already
1600
02:06:44,040 --> 02:06:45,320
an older man
1601
02:06:45,480 --> 02:06:49,120
but he was so vivacious and full of energy...
1602
02:06:49,680 --> 02:06:56,720
Loren: Dear Barnacle, I’m here, in Arlington, Virginia, writing to you.
1603
02:06:56,720 --> 02:06:59,520
I sailed down with the flood, to return to my territory.
1604
02:06:59,520 --> 02:07:06,360
But one day I shall return to your beginning. Maybe it will only be in my memory,
1605
02:07:06,360 --> 02:07:08,680
but even there that will do.
1606
02:07:10,360 --> 02:07:16,920
Even there I will learn certain things about you, and you will learn certain things about
1607
02:07:16,920 --> 02:07:17,600
me.
1608
02:07:17,600 --> 02:07:27,800
And there will be a consequence to our association. Maybe more people will benefit from it.
1609
02:07:28,720 --> 02:07:39,480
Or maybe just you and I, sitting near a fire, sharing food. Sharing, until our thoughts
1610
02:07:39,760 --> 02:07:46,200
find a way to connect.
1611
02:07:57,880 --> 02:07:59,240
Noma: I can't sleep
1612
02:07:59,240 --> 02:08:03,720
Simon: Oh my darling, what are you doing up? It's way too late.
1613
02:08:03,880 --> 02:08:07,160
Noma: Will you tell me a story to help me sleep?
1614
02:08:07,160 --> 02:08:12,960
Simon: Sweetie, story time was a long long time ago. I don't have any stories here, sweetie
1615
02:08:12,960 --> 02:08:14,680
Noma: One from the book you're reading
1616
02:08:14,680 --> 02:08:19,200
Simon: No that's a grownup book, that's Petru's book, that's the jungle book. I don't have
1617
02:08:19,320 --> 02:08:20,240
any stories.
1618
02:08:20,440 --> 02:08:25,840
Noma: Daddy please read me a story
1619
02:08:25,840 --> 02:08:31,280
Simon: I, I, okay, I'll find something in here, I'll find something in Petru's book
1620
02:08:31,280 --> 02:08:35,320
but if I do read it, will you promise me you'll go to sleep?
1621
02:08:35,400 --> 02:08:36,160
Noma: Yes
1622
02:08:36,200 --> 02:08:40,080
Simon: okay, let me see. I'll find some little bit. Oh yeah. I know
1623
02:08:40,680 --> 02:08:47,840
There is a bit. Okay. So this is a story. You remember Petru don't you sweetie?
1624
02:08:47,840 --> 02:08:48,800
Noma: Yes
1625
02:08:49,080 --> 02:08:57,000
So this is a story, that was told to him by McIntyre, who met Cambio, who told it to him and
1626
02:08:57,200 --> 02:08:59,440
his dad told it to Cambio
1627
02:08:59,480 --> 02:09:05,960
and his dad and his dad. And it's about how the people that lived there. How they began.
1628
02:09:06,040 --> 02:09:09,920
It's about their beginning. You're at the beginning aren't you sweetie?
1629
02:09:10,320 --> 02:09:11,400
Noma: Yes
1630
02:09:12,960 --> 02:09:18,720
Simon: Here you go. Once upon a time, the big river flowed in the sky.
1631
02:09:18,960 --> 02:09:25,960
Its whole valley was carried on clouds, fastened to the clouds with bulky liana ropes.
1632
02:09:26,320 --> 02:09:34,280
Many people lived in the valley in the sky in perfect harmony. But one day a curious
1633
02:09:34,280 --> 02:09:39,520
bunch of little children untied one of the ropes.
1634
02:09:39,520 --> 02:09:48,600
And that was enough to undo the entire fragile whole: rope after rope snapped under the pressure,
1635
02:09:48,600 --> 02:09:52,480
and the valley crashed onto the earth.
1636
02:09:52,640 --> 02:09:59,240
Thus the big river split into thousands of smaller rivers, and the sky, sad over the
1637
02:09:59,240 --> 02:10:03,640
loss, cried its first rain.
1638
02:10:03,640 --> 02:10:09,760
[sound of Noma breathing asleep]
1639
02:10:10,320 --> 02:10:29,760
Some of us are friends [looped]
1640
02:10:39,400 --> 02:11:48,560
[applause]
1641
02:11:49,720 --> 02:11:54,080
Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much and for those who are watching online, thank you
1642
02:11:54,080 --> 02:11:55,080
for watching.
1643
02:11:56,440 --> 02:12:00,920
It's a lie, I'm not alone. There are many, many different people who are making this
1644
02:12:00,920 --> 02:12:01,720
performance
1645
02:12:01,720 --> 02:12:06,240
but I would like to acknowledge my sound operators, Ella and Helen,
1646
02:12:06,240 --> 02:12:10,000
who are not just for me sound operators, they are musicians, they are characters and they
1647
02:12:10,000 --> 02:12:11,840
play with me.
1648
02:12:11,840 --> 02:12:24,000
[Applause]
1649
02:12:24,000 --> 02:12:29,880
And the other thing I have been asked to say, about a year and a half ago, little bit longer,
1650
02:12:29,880 --> 02:12:37,200
I was about an hours jet ride west of Manaus, in the Amazon Basin
1651
02:12:37,200 --> 02:12:41,480
and I was with a Mayoruna community, very different to this community,
1652
02:12:41,480 --> 02:12:46,120
they're acculturated, but still they have very few visitors
1653
02:12:46,600 --> 02:12:51,720
and when we were welcomed, the first thing that happens is you get welcomed
1654
02:12:51,720 --> 02:12:56,520
It's an important thing, you go to the headman's hut. His name was Lorival and then he gave
1655
02:12:56,520 --> 02:12:57,480
a long speech
1656
02:12:57,520 --> 02:13:04,440
but it all focused down to one question, which is why are you here?
1657
02:13:04,440 --> 02:13:11,120
And so then I told him the story of this, the whole book, and this idea of doing this
1658
02:13:11,240 --> 02:13:15,760
and he listened and there was a lot more talking
1659
02:13:15,760 --> 02:13:22,520
but he said to me "We are very moved by your story and when you go back and you tell it
1660
02:13:22,520 --> 02:13:23,600
"your people".
1661
02:13:23,640 --> 02:13:31,520
That's you. "You will please tell them that we, the Mayoruna, exist".
1662
02:13:31,560 --> 02:13:36,960
They do. This community and many other indigenous communities are very very politically active.
1663
02:13:36,960 --> 02:13:40,120
They do a number of things. I'm not going to talk about all the things they do right
1664
02:13:40,120 --> 02:13:41,120
now
1665
02:13:41,160 --> 02:13:47,480
but amongst them of course we know they fight for the land they live on and therefore the
1666
02:13:47,480 --> 02:13:49,560
preservation of that forest,
1667
02:13:49,560 --> 02:13:54,520
which is important to us all. But I am here specifically, being asked to say that they
1668
02:13:54,520 --> 02:13:56,120
exist. They do.
1669
02:13:56,120 --> 02:13:56,620
Thank you so much.
1670
02:13:56,620 --> 02:14:03,040
[Applause]
1671
02:14:03,440 --> 02:14:08,400
To all those of you at home who have watched this far, thank you for watching
1672
02:14:08,400 --> 02:14:12,640
The most urgent thing I have to say is that on the Complicité YouTube channel
1673
02:14:12,640 --> 02:14:15,960
there is a film by an Amazonian film maker
1674
02:14:15,960 --> 02:14:18,560
called Takumã Kuikuro
1675
02:14:18,600 --> 02:14:20,000
a close friend of mine
1676
02:14:20,000 --> 02:14:21,920
It is called COVID-19 Brazil
1677
02:14:21,940 --> 02:14:26,680
and it tells about the current situation in the Amazon
1678
02:14:26,800 --> 02:14:28,880
as it currently stands with the pandemic
1679
02:14:28,880 --> 02:14:30,000
please watch it.
1680
02:14:30,700 --> 02:14:35,660
It's worrying, urgent, necessary and there are ways we can help
1681
02:14:36,500 --> 02:14:41,740
In the meantime, please take great care and stay safe.
152643
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