I LONGED TO HEAR THE HEARTBEAT OF THE EARTH

Ton van der Lee was a young Dutch producer of movies. He worked from 7.00 am until 11.00 pm every day and his business went extremely well. He had a beautiful girlfriend and a great house at one of the canals of Amsterdam. One day he was in a meeting with colleagues at a terrace using his mobile phone and suddenly was struck by this feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness. Everybody around him was busy with his phone and out of contact with each other. He stood up, went home and bought a one way ticket to Capetown. From there he made a ramble through Africa that lasted three years. After that he settled for a while at Djenné in Mali. Until now he kept travelling through Africa, wrote many successful books about his adventures and finally returned to moviemaking in the project “spirits of Africa”.

His mission: “All over Africa, traditional healers and their ancient knowledge of nature and spirituality are disappearing fast. It is our mission to record and preserve their knowledge and ceremonies, before they disappear forever”.

EUNOTO, MASAÏ WARRIOR CEREMONY

His latest short movie shows an incredible huge Maasai ceremony in which warriors become young elders, called EUNOTO. Filmed by Jandries Groenendijk, it is part of the Secrets of the Maasai project by Ton van der Lee and Jandries Groenendijk, and also of the much larger Messenger of Enkai documentary film project, for which over 100 hours of never-before-recorded ceremonies were shot over a 6 year period.

The images are unique and spectacular. They will give you a glimp of your roots. Enjoy!!