I worked on this BBC Natural History series for a year and a half travelling the world to film extraordinary rituals and the motivations behind them. 
Each sequence followed the story of an individual or family as they experienced the intense ceremonies, showing us their perspective.
Below are some images from a Kayapo village in the Amazon, where we witnessed Irenekwa giving birth to Bep-kokrê; Peru's Snow Star Festival or 'Qoylloriti', the highest mass pilgrimage in the world; Hell Week, the six-day non-stop endurance test for Taiwanese soldiers entering the country's military elite; and the world famous Palio horse race in Siena.
I wrote a short article about our experience in the Amazon, as DoP Andrew Thompson, fixer Dulce Constantino, translator Nhakta Kayapo and I got there in the nick of time to film little Bep's birth: A Race Against Time
You can watch our journey in this making of video put together by Owen Porter and Claire Thompson.
QOYLLORITI, PERUVIAN ANDES
HELL WEEK, TAIWAN
PALIO, SIENA

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