The Valley of Dawn

Imagine a Brazilian religious community numbering some twenty thousand people where the inhabitants dress like a cross between characters in Star Trek and the Egyptians of 2,000 years ago. 

The Valley of Dawn
According to the doctrine, 32,000 years ago, a fleet of spacecraft arrived into South America from the planet Capela bearing an alien race. From this civilsation came the spirit of Pai Seta Branca, who chose Tia Nieva, a female Brazilian truckdriver to build, construct and complete a temple, lakes, shrines and most importantly an entire religion on 22 hectares of dusty ground in the middle of Brazil

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Adrienne Grierson

Adrienne leaves London to go and discover this outrageous community. Maybe she will be able to get a fabulous and glamorous dress out of it? She meets Genisvalda and Marlete.  Marlete is the Queen of the Gypsy Group in the Valley.  More than just the spectacle of pageantry and ritual that regularly fascinates Brazilians, Adrienne goes inside the religion, and through her blossoming friendships with these two women she learns about the extraordinary life of people who live in this Kingdom.


Adrienne Grierson graduated from Goldsmiths University in London with an MA in Documentary. 

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Genesvalda Beuno dias Lacerda

Genesvalda is a seamstress in the Valley of Dawn and says that even when the Valley of Dawn had no tarmac and was just pile of mud she loved every inch of it. "Any neighbours house, at the temple, at the star, any of the twenty two hectares that Tia Nieva established is home for me"

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Marlete Periera de Querioz

Marlete grew up hearing and seeing spirits and was taken to the Valley of Dawn by her mother at the age of 14 for fear she would become schizophrenic. She has grown up in this exceptional religion and she is a strong force in the Valley being the leader of 7,000 Tagana Gypsies, one of the 21 sub groups of women in the religion.

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Carmen Lucia is Tia Nieva's daughter and it is her responsibility to help uphold the religion that her mother began.

This is the story that will open your mind in a heartfelt and humorous way to the powerful, magical and unusual experiences that surround us daily. Those things which we may perceive as too peculiar, outrageous and eccentric to understand, may simply be wonderful.