A portrait of the Asháninka people who live in the tropical forest of eastern Peru, and a reflection on the experience of living and filming among people who continue to resist the standards of the modern world. Events are structured into a series of days and nights and move in and out of the family compound where we stayed.

"If that film is best that lifts us out of the prisonhouse of custom and transports us to other realms, then Before We Knew Nothing would have to be counted one of the treasures of CineFestival. An absorbing achievement, it is the record of several months spent among the isolated Ashaninka Indians in the remote forests of eastern Peru."
--Steven G. Kellman

"The filmmaker spent seven months in the jungles of Peru to produce not a documentary but an involved interrogation of their life." --Women in the Director's Chair


Xenon-balanced print available upon request