About the film

Of Night and Light: a documentary by Lucy Walker, Director of Netflix series “How to Change Your Mind”. The Story of Iboga and Ibogaine tells the astounding unknown story of what might be the a-ha scientific breakthrough moment of our generation. Back in 1962 a teenage psychonaut in New York City named Howard Lotsof experimented with an obscure psychedelic from the root bark of a West African shrub and recognized its unique therapeutic potential. Together with his African-American wife Norma, a pair of outsider NYU film students, they dedicated their lives to getting science and government to research it, convinced that it would be of great medicinal benefit, despite it sounding too good to be true, like the very definition of snake oil, and being written off as con artists. But they ultimately triumph and ibogaine has helped emancipate over one hundred thousand people from opiate addiction and also got the attention of US special operations veterans, who have been experiencing dramatic relief from a spectrum of addictions and mental health problems and physical disabilities, triggering jaw-dropping new research about to be published that suggests that ibogaine is the most powerful therapeutic ever observed for the human central nervous system.

A work in progress version of the film world premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June and was followed by a centerpiece screening at the world’s largest ever psychedelics conference, MAPS Psychedelic Science 2023, in Denver. The film is directed and produced by two time Oscar nominated filmmaker, Lucy Walker and produced by award winning team of Lyn Lear, Laurie Benenson and Julian Cautherley.

Funding to support completion

The documentary has been supported by an amazing group of grant and equity funders to date including the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, the Lear Family Foundation, the Artemis Rising Foundation, the Austin and Gabriella Hearst Foundation, the Horn Family Foundation and a number of other visionary funders.

Funding needed

We are in a final push to raise $270,000 to complete the post production and delivery of the film.

Click here to view the documentary: