Tribe with Bruce Parry is fascinating – but less projectile vomiting, please ...Middle East

There is a long and unfortunate tradition of Western documentary-makers patronisingly portraying the Amazon rainforest and other equally far-flung locations as pre-industrial paradises, bathed in gorgeous sunlight and invariably soundtracked by the soothing flutter of panpipes. The inhabitants will be treated almost like attractions in an amusement park – their dress and traditions poked, prodded and ogled by the film crew. 

Bruce Parry isn’t that sort of filmmaker, and nobody could accuse him of painting an overly romantic view of life in the Amazon. If anything, he could probably do with soft-soaping it more, because the first episode of Tribe with Bruce Parry makes for often gruelling viewing.

Halfway in, we’re with the documentary maker and author as he is throwing up loudly and violently after ingesting a plant-based drink intended to “purge” his body in preparation for a sacred ritual. Yikes, it really does go on for some time. Feeling queasy, I fast-forwarded a bit – but no, there he is, still barfing his lungs up. It’s never a good sign when you look back at your notes, and the phrase “could do with less projectile vomiting” stands out.

By the time he joins the 24-hour barfing people, Parry had already been living for a fortnight or so among the Waimaha people in the Colombian rainforest. He is trying to persuade the leaders of the community to allow him to participate in a religious ceremony that involves communicating with forest spirits via hallucinogenics. 

It takes a while for the Waimaha to come around. They are understandably sceptical of a cheery outsider turning up, camera crew in tow, wondering if he might move in with them for a few weeks. To convince the locals of his bona fides, Parry accompanies them on foraging excursions where they uncover beetle larvae (tastes like custard) and eat live ants. Then, the puke-de-resistance. He is taken into the jungle by night and required to imbibe a violently bright liquid made from mulched greenery.

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Let’s be honest: the barfing will be a deal breaker for many. How much of the Parry purge do we need to see? Couldn’t he have just told us about it off-camera? Get past it, though, and Tribes is an engaging portrayal of a community trying to hold on to its customs in a modern world changing at breakneck pace. One villager says her sister left at 15 to find work as a nanny. She refuses to come home. “She doesn’t speak our language…she thinks she is a white person now.”

It isn’t Parry’s first tribal gathering. Twenty years ago, he made the original Tribe, a ground-breaking series where he lived among remote communities and learned their customs. This time around, everything is building up to the psychedelic ceremony. The villagers ingest a powerful form of the psychoactive ayahuasca and then stay up through the night, singing and communing with nature. There is also more vomiting – we see one member of the community become sick, and then Parry explains he, too, has had to be carried away for further purging.

But he assures us that it is worth all the pain. The next day, he lies in a river, letting the waters course over him, a broad smile on his face. “This isn’t just a place where you grow your food. It’s a relationship you have with the forest – it’s something you can feel,” he says. It’s a fascinating insight into the challenges and rewards of living so intimately with the natural world – but what a shame that the journey to that revelation has been so exacting for presenter and audience alike.

‘Tribe with Bruce Parry’ starts on Sunday 30 March at 9pm

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