BENKI
SERIES NARRATIVE
BENKI: SERIES 1
View the 90min Documentary created to receive approval for the Doc-Series from the tribes and acquire Jada’s involvement in the project:
JADA’S INVOLVEMENT
“On Camera, Voiceover & Producer “
Jada would like to be additive. She has discussed wanting to be attached to help a sale, narrate and be in the doc to help the lean in from American viewers.
Benki’s first meeting with Jada
EPISODE 1: BENKI & JADA
“Series Launch”
We open on Jada in the forest and quickly descend into her process. As her story moves too fast for viewers she says,
“Let me start from the beginning when Benki came into my life!”
Benki Piyãko & Jada Pinkett-Smith meet for the first time. Their meeting reveal the overview of the entire series. Through their conversation we weave in and out of Benki’s history through VO driven narratives - which would serve as a spine for the series. Their conversations brings us into the jungle world, with the idea of Jada visiting the Amazon peppered across EVERY episode - showcasing her following in the footsteps of other elements that will be featured in each episode. A good docuseries isn't told linearly - it is a layered journey that gets us layers and layers deeper into a core theme - which in this case we see as Benki utilizing plant healing as a way to help people re-connect with their ancestral connectivity to the environment - on a ticking clock of doing so before it's too late. Jada, in a linear sense, would meet Benki in Los Angeles, then later potentially do a ceremony, then head to the jungle, then possibly a recap interview w/ her in the back end.
( episode 1 string-out sans jada footage )
EPISODE 2: THE ASHANINKA
Benki talks with Jada about the significance of both the Ashaninka culture and his family’s lineage. Through this history we set up how the Ashaninka are one tribe that have never lost their lineage through colonization.
( episode 2 string-out sans jada footage )
EPISODE 3: THE PUYANAWA
The history of the Puyanawa is a story that echos through the amazon. Benki talks with Jada about the history of colonization, rubber tappers and how the Puyanawa people were able to reclaim their land and their heritage, we see how a tribe is on the verge of extinction and through Benki’s guidance reclaims their culture.
( episode 4 string-out sans jada footage )
EPISODE 4: THE INVOCATION Part 3
We begin this episode during darker days. As the Puyanawa transition from evangelical times into practicing their spirituality, a convergence of spirits occur. Benki & Jada discuss a festival in 2010 when the women of the village suffer an Invocation. Benki is called by the forest to heal the village and work with their chief to better understand how to move forward into this new way of life that derives from their ancestors. As the healing unfolds, Benki and his team of healers begin to feel this task may be too big and hope begins to fade.
( episode 4 string-out sans jada footage )
EPISODE 5: INVOCATION Part 2
The invocation continues and Jada begins to see how the power of patience and perseverance take on new meanings and through Benki’s words we see a tribe from the past reemerge into a flourishing culture from the past.
EPISODE 6: YORENKA TASORENTSI
The weight of this history is felt and questions of “Where do you go from here?” emerge.
The Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute is revealed to Jada. Benki describes the future of his people through sustainability and using the Institute to educate not only the tribes of the Amazon, but the entire world. The next generation of the Piyãko family explain, in their words, how they will carry on Benki’s vision into the future.
EPISODE 7: JADA’S JOURNEY
The story comes full circle as Jada reveals all. Continuing her own spiritual journey by experiencing The Yorenka Tasorensti Institute for herself, Benki takes her through the jungle, music, chants & ancient wisdom to help her see inside of her life that she describes as, “Something she has been waiting for!”
Through her eyes we witness the power of self discovery and experience all that has been revealed throughout the series and throughout the History of the forest.