The Pierced Heart and the Machete (2012) dir. Olivia Wyatt

Olivia Wyatts latest film, The Pierced Heart The Machete, is a vivid, unflinching exploration of two annual Vodou pilgrimages in Haiti. The first is for Èzili Danto, goddess of love, art and passion; worshippers from all over the world descend on the southwestern town of VilleBonheur to bathe in the sacred waterfall where Dantò resides. The second pilgrimage is for Dantòs husband Ogoun, god of war, iron and healing. It takes place at the end of July in the northern town of Plaine du Nord, where hundreds of enraptured practitioners bathe in a mud pool and make flamboyant sacrifices. This beautifully shot film offers disorienting yet illuminating glimpses of the contradictory and complementary aspects of these two Lwa, the electrifying rites that summon them, and the intense musical performances that accompany these ecstatic and bloody ceremonies. As in her previous film for Sublime Frequencies, Staring Into the Sun, Wyatts vision is always incisive, unerring and unobtrusive.