Bowl of Bone: Tale of the Syuwe (114 mins, 1992)
1h 51m
When filmmaker Jan-Marie Martell retreats into the British Columbia wilderness, she meets Annie Zíxtkwu [Zetco] York, an Indigenous visionary, or syuwe. Together they embark on a film that follows the changing course of their fifteen-year quest for healing.
Syuwe - pronounced shu-wah, from the Thompson language of the Interior Salish people of British Columbia - a syuwe is a herbalist, healer, astral traveler, medicine woman; a visionary who can see the future of your life written on you. A syuwe's power is an accumulation of ancient knowledge for healing that has appeared as a gift through dreams, a power passed down within a family and kept secret. But if the oath of secrecy is broken or the knowledge flaunted, the power will disappear.
This feature-length documentary is a haunting and deeply personal story that begins as a filmmaker's quest for self-knowledge and ends in a unique and powerful vision of friendship between two very different women. As Annie Zetco York and Jan-Marie Martell encounter feelings of loss and guilt, in addition to changing notions of healing, faith and intercultural friendship, the audience also engages in the film's profound transformative process.