Yemanjá
Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil
narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker
A film by Donna C. Roberts and Donna Read
Ancient knowledge. Timeless values. A universal story for humanity today.
Winner of 6 Best Documentary Awards!
A documentary film about the Afro-indigenous Candomblé spiritual culture in Bahia, Brazil.
(photo of Mãe Filhinha of Yemanjá-Ogunté, 109-years great! by Gerald Lee Hoffman, copyright 2013)
viGrounded in strong community and Earth-based wisdom, Candomblé is a potent legacy of enslaved Africans in the Americas. Our film explores contemporary and historical social challenges, resiliency, and triumphs of
Candomblé and its devotees through the voices of extraordinary women leaders.
Candomblé and its devotees through the voices of extraordinary women leaders.
Enjoy our film in the privacy of your home. Rent or buy it OnDemand via Vimeo for private home use only:
vimeo.com/yemanja
For screening opportunities, educational & institutional licenses, acquisitions, and/or DVDs for home-use, please contact Producer/director Donna Roberts at: [email protected]
We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your interest! Obrigada!
Enjoy our 3-minute promo video:
English Promo from Donna Carole Roberts on Vimeo.
Our stunning companion photography exhibit, Goddesses of Nature, is available to be displayed with the film at special events with photography by Gerald Lee Hoffman, the film's videographer.
(see exhibit webpage: "photography/fotografia")
Two great Candomblé leaders profiled in our film, Makota Valdina Pinto & Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, have passed on since the completion of our documentary. Our film is dedicated to divulging these matriarch's fierce dedication to the rights of humanity and nature.
Read more about their life's work on our webpage, Women of Candomblé.
Read more about their life's work on our webpage, Women of Candomblé.
We are eternally grateful to great writer and activist Alice Walker for narrating our film's story.
Alice Walker says of the film:
Alice Walker says of the film:
What a miracle is presented here. When I look into the faces of these great teachers, who have kept the faith the world,
now in its direst hour, most needs, I am humbled and, yes, amazed. For this is what Truth means.
No matter how hidden or abused, how enslaved and denied, it survives.
Amen! Axé! Ashé! Asê!
2024 Select in-person events
-February 23, 2024, Brussels, Belgium. Brazilian Embassy in Brussels, Brazilian Cinema Week. Screening & discussion.
-January 4, 2024, Pittsburgh, PA. Carlow University, Screening & photo exhibit, MFA in Creative Writing Residency
2022-2023 Select in-person events
-April 4, 2023, Middlebury, VT. Town Hall Theater, 7 p.m. Screening & discussion. Select photos from Goddesses of Nature displayed in Theater gallery in group exhibit, Earth's Materials. Sponsored by New Perennials Project.
-June 30, 2022. Starr Island, NH. Film screening & photo exhibit during annual conference of Institute for Religion in an Age of Science, We & They: Cultivating Cross-Cultural Connections.
-June 11, 2022. Miami, FL. Film screening during World Oceans Day event, Orishas, Ancestors, and Ocean Conservation: The Rhetoric of (Mami)Water in Afro DiasporIc Religions. Green Space Gallery. Followed by talk with Solimar Otero, author of Archives of Conjure.
-April 28, 2022 - Keynote discussion, Wisdom from Afro-Brazilian religious traditions for spiritual care, featuring select film clips during virtual conference, Climate Crisis & Spiritual Care. Annual gathering of International Association for Spiritual Care.
Other select screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic:
-February 23, 2024, Brussels, Belgium. Brazilian Embassy in Brussels, Brazilian Cinema Week. Screening & discussion.
-January 4, 2024, Pittsburgh, PA. Carlow University, Screening & photo exhibit, MFA in Creative Writing Residency
2022-2023 Select in-person events
-April 4, 2023, Middlebury, VT. Town Hall Theater, 7 p.m. Screening & discussion. Select photos from Goddesses of Nature displayed in Theater gallery in group exhibit, Earth's Materials. Sponsored by New Perennials Project.
-June 30, 2022. Starr Island, NH. Film screening & photo exhibit during annual conference of Institute for Religion in an Age of Science, We & They: Cultivating Cross-Cultural Connections.
-June 11, 2022. Miami, FL. Film screening during World Oceans Day event, Orishas, Ancestors, and Ocean Conservation: The Rhetoric of (Mami)Water in Afro DiasporIc Religions. Green Space Gallery. Followed by talk with Solimar Otero, author of Archives of Conjure.
-April 28, 2022 - Keynote discussion, Wisdom from Afro-Brazilian religious traditions for spiritual care, featuring select film clips during virtual conference, Climate Crisis & Spiritual Care. Annual gathering of International Association for Spiritual Care.
Other select screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Luz da Africa Film Festival, Brasilia, Brazil. (Featuring work of all women filmmakers, it is a project of New York African Film Festival with which our film screened at Lincoln Center in 2016.)
- Vermont Interfaith Power & Light Black History Month screening with women faith leaders and expert in religious racism.
- Inaugural Sabira Cole Film Festival. Pittsburgh, PA. Winner - Best Feature Length Documentary!
- African Diaspora Religious Studies Association
- Philadelphia Latino Film Festival
For a full list of screenings, please see our Screenings / Eventos page.
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It (the film) is so overwhelmingly powerful! Not since watching the film Daughters of the Dust have I seen such compelling visual images of Black women as institution builders, knowledge experts, and authoritative leaders (meaning not solely figureheads) in an African or
African Diasporic context.
-Dr. Dianne M. Stewart, Associate Professor of Religion and African American Studies, Emory University
To learn about the film's Portuguese version Iemanja: Sabedoria ecológica do coração do Brasil, narrated by actor Alice Braga, or to access it OnDemand, see our web page: Casa de Iemanja. For DVD's, please contact D. Roberts.
Payment via Credit card, PayPal via Donate link below. Contact Donna to use Venmo.
Thank you! Obrigada! Gracias! Merci!
African Diasporic context.
-Dr. Dianne M. Stewart, Associate Professor of Religion and African American Studies, Emory University
To learn about the film's Portuguese version Iemanja: Sabedoria ecológica do coração do Brasil, narrated by actor Alice Braga, or to access it OnDemand, see our web page: Casa de Iemanja. For DVD's, please contact D. Roberts.
Payment via Credit card, PayPal via Donate link below. Contact Donna to use Venmo.
Thank you! Obrigada! Gracias! Merci!
Support our continued work promoting both versions of the film and more with a gift from our project.
(A Spanish language version is in development. )
- $225 Aluminum mounted 11 x 17 signed photograph of Mãe Filhinha (film's "key art") and perpetual calendar
(perpetual calendar including traditional Brazilian recipes can be used year after year!)
- $125 11 x 17 signed photograph of Mãe Filhinha and perpetual calendar
- $100 Signed 11 x 17 limited edition "new" signed photos of Mãe Filhinha or image from our exhibit, Goddesses of Nature
( see images here: "Mãe Filhinha" gallery or "Goddesses of Nature Exhibit" https://morningskystudio.photoshelter.com/portfolio/G0000IL64pNeFBYo )
- $30 Bilingual Perpetual calendar with Favorite Bahian Recipes
Please pay using PayPal via the "Donate" tab above, or call/email us to use a credit card without using PayPal, or to use Venmo.
(*additional $5 -$10 for shipping in U.S depending on item)
(A Spanish language version is in development. )
- $225 Aluminum mounted 11 x 17 signed photograph of Mãe Filhinha (film's "key art") and perpetual calendar
(perpetual calendar including traditional Brazilian recipes can be used year after year!)
- $125 11 x 17 signed photograph of Mãe Filhinha and perpetual calendar
- $100 Signed 11 x 17 limited edition "new" signed photos of Mãe Filhinha or image from our exhibit, Goddesses of Nature
( see images here: "Mãe Filhinha" gallery or "Goddesses of Nature Exhibit" https://morningskystudio.photoshelter.com/portfolio/G0000IL64pNeFBYo )
- $30 Bilingual Perpetual calendar with Favorite Bahian Recipes
Please pay using PayPal via the "Donate" tab above, or call/email us to use a credit card without using PayPal, or to use Venmo.
(*additional $5 -$10 for shipping in U.S depending on item)
Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil is a production of Project Zula /Projeto Zula
Producer/Director: Donna Carole Roberts
Associate Director/Editor: Donna Read
Principal Photographer: Gerald Lee Hoffman
Launched in 2016
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/yemanjathefilm.com
Tel. U.S. 239/771-9759
Skype: donnacroberts1
Copyright 2015.
All photos on this site are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission.
If you would like to use any content of this site, please contact Ms. Roberts.
We are very happy you are interested in our work and will respond in a timely manner.
Thank you! Obrigada!
If you would like to use any content of this site, please contact Ms. Roberts.
We are very happy you are interested in our work and will respond in a timely manner.
Thank you! Obrigada!