'More Joy Less Pain'
'More Joy Less Pain'
Peter Gorman, who’s journeyed many times through the Amazon Jungle in Peru, is followed through the wilderness as he leads visiting Americans in an introduction into Peru’s culture and native medicines derived from ingredients found in the jungle.
Secretion from a phyllomedusa bicolor tree frog and snuff derived from tobacco leaves mixed with wild cacao may not invoke the word “medicine” in the minds of many people. But these are only a mere two in an array of exotic remedies featured in a documentary following one Texas man who swears by them.
“More Joy Less Pain” by filmmaker James Michael McCoy is a documentary on 68-year-old Peter Gorman, the award-winning former editor-in-chief of High Times magazine and now a writer for Fort Worth Weekly. Gorman, who’s journeyed many times through the Amazon Jungle in Peru, is followed through the wilderness as he leads visiting Americans in an introduction into Peru’s culture and native medicines derived from ingredients found in the jungle.
McCoy and Gorman greeted guests Tuesday night in a screening at The Grand Berry Theater, in which they both touched on the motivation, process of shooting the documentary, and what they hope viewers take away from the piece.
“I wanted people to feel like they were on a trip,” McCoy said to the few dozen in attendance. Cinematography is purposefully raw and erratic throughout “More Joy Less Pain,” emulating the thrill of navigating through dense brush and perhaps some of the psychedelic sensations felt under the medicine’s influence.
One Peruvian medicine featured in the film is sapo, an opaque gel-like substance scraped off a tree frog’s body. Application of the medicine involves burning a shallow hole into the skin, then smearing the salve over the area.
Flesh-eating bacteria, poisonous spider bites, and malaria are all ailments Gorman says should’ve killed him after landing him into the ICU more than once. Yet when asked about the potency of sapo and other Peruvian meds, he’s blunt on his stance toward their effect.
“I think that medicine is so good that it’s kept me alive despite all those really horrible things, all of which landed me in the hospital,” Gorman says. “They’re not miracle drugs, but they’re damn close to miracle drugs.”
Keep up with “More Joy Less Pain” on the official Facebook page and Twitter account at @MJLPFilm.
Correction: Sapo is made from the secretion of the phyllomedusa bicolor tree frog.
