The Coca Leaf: A Most Beneficial Plant
A documentary to bring the true story of the coca leaf to the world.
For more than 8,000 years, Indigenous peoples of the Andes have revered coca as a sacred, medicinal, nutritional, and cultural plant. Yet today, coca remains one of the most misunderstood plants on Earth.
The Coca Leaf: A Most Beneficial Plant is a feature-length documentary from the Beneficial Plant Research Association that seeks to restore coca’s story to its rightful context: one of cultural sovereignty, ecological knowledge, community wellbeing, and scientific inquiry.
Directed by Lucy Walker with Executive Producers Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Wade Davis.
All photos courtesy of Wade Davis
Led by an extraordinary creative and scientific team
The documentary is being developed with acclaimed director Lucy Walker, a two-time Academy Award nominee known for visually powerful, emotionally resonant documentary films.
The project also brings together leading voices in ethnobotany, integrative medicine, anthropology, pharmacology, and Indigenous plant knowledge, including members of BPRA’s Board and Scientific Board.
BPRA’s roots in coca research go back to its founding in 1979 by Andrew Weil, MD and Timothy Plowman, PhD, both students of the legendary ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. Today, BPRA continues that legacy by advancing public understanding of beneficial plants and the communities that have safeguarded them.
Now, with Wade Davis joining as an Executive Producer alongside Andrew Weil, our expertise spans to the current moment of cultural relevance and supporting access to this most beneficial plant.
A film about memory, medicine, and cultural resilience
Across the Andes, coca is more than a leaf. It is offered to mountains, carried in ceremonies, exchanged along ancient trails, shared in collective labor, and woven into daily practices of endurance, prayer, and belonging.
This documentary follows coca across landscapes, communities, laboratories, and archives to ask a deeper question:
What becomes possible when the world learns to see coca not through stigma, but through culture, science, and respect?
Through the voices of Indigenous communities, scientists, healers, historians, and plant medicine experts, the film will explore coca’s cultural significance, traditional uses, unique phytochemistry, and the consequences of decades of criminalization.
Why this film matters now
Global conversations about plant medicine, Indigenous knowledge, drug policy, and ecological stewardship are changing rapidly. Yet coca has too often been excluded from those conversations or reduced to a single narrative.
BPRA believes the time has come to reintroduce coca as what it has long been for Andean peoples: a beneficial plant, a sacred ally, and a living expression of relationship between people, place, and tradition.
This film will help shift public perception from fear and stigma toward curiosity, cultural appreciation, and responsible scientific inquiry.
What your donation supports
Your gift helps fund the essential work required to create and share this film, including:
Research, story development, and archival investigation
Field production in coca-growing regions of Latin America
Interviews with Indigenous leaders, scientists, healers, historians, and community partners
Fair compensation for community contributors and expert participants
Translation, subtitles, and accessibility materials for global audiences
Editing, music, animation, maps, color, sound, and post-production
A companion educational website and public engagement campaign
Festival, theatrical, digital, and educational distribution
Every contribution helps BPRA tell this story with the care, depth, and cultural respect it deserves.
Suggested giving levels
$50 — Story Supporter
Helps create educational materials that introduce audiences to coca’s cultural and historical significance.
$100 — Research Ally
Supports archival research, story development, and preparation for expert interviews.
$250 — Community Voices Partner
Helps support translation, local coordination, and contributor participation.
$500 — Field Production Supporter
Contributes to responsible field filming in coca-growing regions.
$1,000 — Documentary Circle
Supports production, post-production, and outreach needed to bring the film to wider audiences.
$5,000+ — Founding Supporter
Provides major support for the completion and distribution of the film.
$20,000 – All donors at the $20K+ range are welcome to join us for the Coca Retreat with Lucy Walker, Wade Davis, and Andrew Weil for filming in Peru.
Founding supporters may be acknowledged in project materials where appropriate.