Fresh from screening in the immersive competition at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, New South Wales artist and director Lynette Wallworth’s Create NSW-supported virtual reality experience Awavena has been acquired by MWM Studios to be adapted as an animated feature.

The film is the second in a series of mixed-reality works by Lynette Wallworth and producer Nicole Newnham and follows the Yawanawa people of the Amazon, and first premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival as part of the Festival’s New Frontier program.

Create NSW’s Grainne Brunsdon said “Awavena is a remarkable project from a dynamic female filmmaking team and we have enjoyed supporting Lynette and Nicole throughout the process. Lynette was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Sydney UNESCO City of Film Award in 2016 for her work and, with this latest project, she continues to create innovative work with the potential to connect powerfully with audiences”.

Hushahu on the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. Production still from Awavena

Awavena was made at the invitation of, and in intimate collaboration with, the Yawanawa people during a time of both peril and potential for the people, their forest, and the connected ecosystems that drive the planet.

Lynette Wallworth said,

Awavena has an incredibly powerful story at its heart; a crucially relevant narrative of Indigenous cultural revival in the Brazilian Amazon, arising from female empowerment. It’s been supported by a coalition of international partners-including gracious support from Create NSW and Screen Australia, plus a residency at the Technicolor Experience Centre through Sundance New Frontiers.

“The Awavena story is essentially being gifted to the world by the Yawanawa people via technologies they perceived could best represent their unique world view,” said Ms Wallworth.

Lynette Wallworth is recognised as a leader working in new and emerging technologies and was invited to the Amazon by Tashka Yawanawa, chief of the Yawanawa people, when he saw her previous VR film COLLISIONS and recognised a spiritual compatibility with her.

For more information on the film visit http://www.awavenavr.com