{"id":21299,"date":"2025-10-29T14:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21299\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:24:09","slug":"wayumi-doc-nyc-world-premiere-gets-release-from-grasshopper-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/21299\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wayumi,’ DOC NYC World Premiere, Gets Release from Grasshopper Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

Set in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest in Venezuela, an American man named David Good looks to reunite with his Indigenous mother, Yarima, after she returned to her tribe in a Venezuelan Yanomani village when he was a child, leaving the two of them separated for more than 30 years. The documentary film<\/a>, titled \u201cWayumi,\u201d is a cinematic journey of self-discovery across continents and generations about their last chance to bring the whole family together, and it has now found a home of its own.<\/p>\n

Grasshopper Film<\/a> has acquired the North American distribution rights to \u201cWayumi,\u201d the directorial debut of filmmaker Andrew Balcof, IndieWire can report exclusively. The film is set to make its world premiere in the U.S. Competition at DOC NYC<\/a> next month, and Grasshopper will be planning a non-theatrical, digital release for the title next year. <\/p>\n

\"Slamdance<\/a> \"Signage<\/a> <\/p>\n

Against the backdrop of the Amazon\u2019s vista, not to mention bureaucratic obstacles from the Venezuelan government, the story of Good and his mother is described as a \u201cmeditation on resilience, cultural survival, and the ties that endure across time and distance.\u201d The film draws from hundreds of hours of footage as Good both explores the jungles of Venezuela as well as tours his mom around the suburbs of New Jersey. The first trailer for the film, which IndieWire is sharing below, shows Good\u2019s mother more comfortable nude in her home in the sweltering rainforest than shopping for bras at a department store. <\/p>\n

The debut screening of \u201cWayumi\u201d will be followed at DOC NYC<\/a> with a Q&A with director and producer Balcof, producers David Good and Elius Kim, and executive producers Larry Weiss and Johnny Griffith. Peter Getzels is also an executive producer.<\/p>\n

Grasshopper Film recently acquired the TIFF Discovery title \u201cForastera,\u201d<\/a> which won the FIPRESCI prize<\/a> for emerging filmmakers for director Luc\u00eda Ale\u00f1ar Iglesias. It also released the films \u201cRiver of Grass\u201d and \u201cMare\u2019s Nest\u201d earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWayumi\u201d premieres at DOC NYC in-person at the Village East by Angelika on November 15 at 5:30 p.m., followed by a second screening on Nov. 17 at 4 p.m., and it will be available online to festival goers on Nov. 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly excited to be working on \u2018Wayumi.\u2019 Andrew Balcof has crafted something visually stunning and culturally powerful. We\u2019re proud to support the film and help share its story with new audiences,\u201d Lily Spitz, Head of Non-Theatrical and Digital Distribution with Grasshopper Film, said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more thrilled to share \u2018Wayumi\u2019 with the world through Grasshopper Film,\u201d Balcof added in a statement. \u201cDavid and Yarima\u2019s story illuminates how history and culture enrich our sense of identity, belonging, and family. Sharing this journey with our audience is a profound privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grasshopper\u2019s Lily Spitz negotiated the deal with RJ Millard and Katherine Matthews of Obscured Pictures on behalf of the filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\"Wayumi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Set in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest in Venezuela, an American man named David Good looks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2401,749,14229,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-21299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-doc-nyc","tag-film","tag-grasshopper-film","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}