What began as a character study of a complicated, mystical, Oglala Lakota Medicine Man became a “slow-motion collision between ancient and modern minds.”
Six years ago the filmmakers were granted an interview for a short educational film. We never thought it would leed to performing the Vision Quest and Sun Dance Ceremonies for four-years.
But the ancient rituals of suffering, prayer, and gratitude added several layers of depth and intensity to the overall experience, becoming a six-year long exploration of an ancient religion surviving the modern age.
And Medicine Man, Sidney Hasnohorses, never spared the gory details about growing up in one of the poorest, most violent counties in the country. He was brutally honest about his own past, openly revealing character flaws and inter-generational trauma.
But this documentary was an unlikely occurrence, the director, Salvatore Consalvi, was hip deep in another documentary, Deep Field Antarctica, about the remote and isolated experience managing field camps in the highest, driest, loneliest place on earth. For a time, he entertained finishing both projects at once. Yet returning exhausted from a hot water drill camp on the glacier tongue of Pine Island Glacier to performing the most rigorous Lakota rituals that included fasting and traditional flesh offerings proved too much.
Now, the experience has progressed from the spiritual identity of one religious leader to a deeper understanding of mind and consciousness, one consistent with many earth-based religions, and translatable to many modern-minds. And the filmmakers are deep into a Kickstarter Campaign that will fund post-production and tell this story of Ancient Wisdom, Modern Torment, Quantum Consciousness, and a Link to the Spirit World.
Sidney Has No Horses: Oglala Lakota Medicine Man 