Last of the Medicine Men

2000 · Documentary

Intrepid traveller and adventurer Benedict Allen journeys across the globe to examine the mysterious world of witch doctors, medicine men, and shamans.

Episodes

▶1. Episode 1Benedict Allen begins his quest in New York where he attempts to demystify the religion of voodoo.▶2. Episode 2Benedict Allen visits northern Haiti with a mambo, or medicine woman, for the festival of Ogun the Warrior, where he is unwittingly watched by a witch doctor with a notorious reputation.▶3. Episode 3This week Benedict Allen visits the Mentawai people on the rainforested island of Siberut in Indonesia. Under the tutelage of a young medicine man, or kerei, he tries to learn one of their sacred healing songs - knowing that if he gets the song wrong, the patient dies.▶4. Episode 4Benedict Allen is led into Indonesia's Siberut forest by Amam Dirikogo, a young kerei or medicine man, and comes across a rare species of singing gibbon. Concluding his training as a kerei, he attends a cleansing ceremony, and spends a night alone on one of the country's most sacred hills.▶5. Episode 528m · Benedict Allen's exploration of the shamanic world takes him to Central America, where he joins a group of Huichol Indians from Mexico's western Sierra Madre on their annual pilgrimage to the desert of Wirikuta in search of the peyote cactus. A powerful hallucinogen, the Huichol believe peyote enables them to communicate with the gods.▶6. Episode 628m · Continuing Benedict Allen's exploration of the dramatic world of Mexican witch doctors, medicine men, and shamans. In this second part of his travels in Mexico, Benedict Allen samples peyote, the cactus revered by the Huichol Indians. A small amount of the bitter-tasting flesh gives him a rare chance to see for himself the hidden realm of the gods.▶7. Episode 7Benedict Allen arrives in Siberia on the final leg of his journey into the world of witch doctors, medicine men, and shamans. This week and next he visits Tuva, where shamanism is experiencing a rise in popularity after 70 years of Soviet domination almost succeeded in wiping it out.▶8. Episode 8Benedict Allen concludes his exploration of the world's medicine men in the Siberian republic of Tuva. Allen seeks out an old shaman who gives a detailed description of the spirit world and speaks of energies he can feel as he heals.

More Like This

Last Chance to See

2009 · ★ 7.2

A follow-up to the 1990 Radio 4 series in which the late Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine travelled around the world in search of endangered species. 20 years later Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine go back to see what has become of the animals in two decades, and to discover what has affected their fortunes.

More info →

Maradona in Mexico

2019 · ★ 6.6

The Dorados, Culiacan's local team, are at the bottom of the rankings when Maradona arrives, looking for a fresh start. The experts predict disaster.

More info →

Spirit Plate

2025

An immersive culinary adventure that takes viewers deep into the heart of Native America, guided by award-winning celebrity Chef Pyet DeSpain (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation). Each episode drops audiences into a new and breathtaking landscape—deserts, forests, plains, and coastlines—where Chef Pyet joins Indigenous communities to gather, fish, hunt, and cook in the spirit of ancestral tradition.

More info →

The Wilderness Diva

2023

Opera singer Carina Henriksson, who has lived and worked in several world metropolises, takes the lure of the fine arts and opera to one of Sweden's most sparsely populated areas.

More info →

Indonézia 4 arca

2018 · ★ 10

No synopsis available.

More info →

Good Morning Kalimantan

2011

This six-part series follows the adventures of a gibbon expert battling to save Borneo’s threatened wildlife and using a very special radio station to do it. Chanee Brule is a young French zookeeper who has been fascinated by gibbons since childhood. Ten years ago he headed the call of the wild and left France for Indonesia. Determined to save Borneo’s gibbons – the magical singing apes of the forest – from extinction, he is responsible for the biggest gibbon rescue and rehabilitation program in Indonesia. His efforts are boosted by his role as lead DJ on Kalimantan’s most popular radio stations nicknamed “Radio Gibbon”. If that wasn’t enough, he’s in the process of building a new television studio – Gibbon MTV – where wild music and wildlife will collide.

More info →