Documentary follows artist from Amazon to art world success
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Matteo Norzi and Èlia Gasull Balada documented Sara Flores’s life and art, tracing her journey from the Peruvian Amazon, the territory of the Shipibo-Conibo people, to international recognition in the art world.
Norzi first met Flores while filming a documentary about ayahuasca rituals with Leonor Caraballo in the early 2010s, and he later cofounded the Shipibo-Conibo Center to support the community and promote their art.
The filmmakers followed Flores as she created kené, intricate hand-drawn geometric art rooted in Shipibo-Conibo traditions, and exhibited her work in New York, London, Paris, and at the Venice Biennale. Flores’s art gained prominence through shows at galleries like Clearing and White Cube, and a collaboration with Dior, but the film also highlights the threats to her community’s Amazon rainforest habitat.
The documentary culminates with Flores’s retrospective at Lima’s Museo de Arte in Peru, the institution’s first solo exhibition dedicated to an Indigenous artist. Flores uses her success to support her family, organizations working for Indigenous self-governance, and the guards protecting the Amazon from deforestation, acknowledging the importance of preserving both her artistic tradition and her people’s way of life.
