Christopher Bessette

Yai Wanonabalewa: The Enemy God

Christopher Bessette

Here in the Amazon jungle, where the spirit world and the natural world merge, Shake has reached the highest honor a Yanomamö shaman can attain. Shake has possession of many spirits, but the Spirit most feared by all Yanomamö, is one they call Yai Wanonabälewä – The Enemy God. Shake is a powerful shaman of the Yanomamo people. His desire is to use his power to heal and protect. Tracing his life and the life of his community over 40 years of their history, Shake tells how he and his people grapple with new ideas from the outside world and the challenging decisions they make to maintain their identity and survive as a people.

Trade of Innocents

Christopher Bessette

Dermot Mulroney, Mira Sorvino

In the back streets of a tourist town in present-day Southeast Asia, we find a filthy cinder block room; a bed with soiled sheets; a little girl waits for the next man. Alex (Dermot Mulroney), a human trafficking investigator, plays the role of her next customer as he negotiates with the pimp for the use of the child. Claire (Mira Sorvino), Alex's wife, is caught up in the flow of her new life in Southeast Asia and her role as a volunteer in an aftercare shelter for rescued girls where lives of local neighborhood girl's freedoms and dignity are threatened. Parallel story lines intertwine and unfold twists against the backdrop of the dangerous human trafficking world, in a story of struggle, life, hope and redemption in the "TRADE of INNOCENTS."