Headshrinkers

This documentary went out in the UK on Thursday July 23rd 2009 on Channel Five, it will go out on NatGeo throughout the rest of the world from November..

if you are in the UK you can still WATCH IT ONLINE here

It got some great reviews…

some publicity:

Interview on Fox

The trailer on NatGeo

…interview on Real Radio..with the Real Guy Harris…

..interview with Osca Humphreys and Piers Gibbon on Radio London

How to shrink a human head

The programme is directed by Osca Humphreys and presented by me. It is all about the Shuar people of Ecuador. The story is kickstarted by the discovery of some footage shot by an explorer in the 1960’s – which looks like it shows the only known footage of a genuine headshrinking ceremony, with a real human head being shrunk to the size of an orange.

On the way to find out what is really going on in the footage I meet the President of the Shuar, a battalion of jungle fighting specialists, a Catholic missionary who campaigns against headshrinking by converting the Shuar to Christianity, oh and a member of a lynch mob who is happy to talk about the day they dragged someone off into the jungle and “turned him into powder”…

NEW – Better version with the right music – ..Here are some of my favourite photos from the shoot. I’d like to thank everyone at Diverse TV and of course the Shuar for all their hospitality. Rocfoto took the best shots, and thanks to all the crew for taking photos on my Lumix LX3 as well. The music is a Shuar dance tune. Sadly, there was no room in the final edit for the Shuar dancing scene…

These shrunken head publicity cupcakes were specially commissioned by Dara Klatt of NatGeo!

Shrunken head cupcakes from yesterday. :0) on Twitpic

here’s a commercial for a Headshrinker toy…