Browse Items (6 total)
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A Arca dos Zo’é
Both groups of indigeneous Brasilians, the Waiãpi and the Zo’e, belong to the Tupi language family and share quite a bit of their traditions. But while the Waiãpi have been living in close contact with white people for the last twenty years, the Zo’é are about to make their first experiences with them. In the context of the Video in the Villages project by the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista the Waiãpi have met the Zo’é through video. They recognized their lifestyle as being similar to what oral history tells them about the life of their own ancestors. Waiwai, chief of the Waiãpi has been visiting the Zo’é together with a small filmcrew. In Meeting the Ancestors Waiwai tells his own people about his experiences on the trip and he comments the video sequences shot with the Zo’é. (Freiburger FilmForum: Festival of Transcultural Cinema) -
Boca Livre no Sararé
En 1991 más de cien mil garimpeiros invaden una reserva nambiquara en Sararé. Al mismo tiempo, los madereros talan en la selva especies en peligro de extinción. Presionado por el Banco Mundial, con el cual el gobierno de Mato Crosso negocia un préstamo, éste consigue la expulsión de los invasores. Pero el robo de la madera continúa y el regreso de los garimpeiros puede ocurrir en cualquier momento. (Portal del cine y audiovisual latinoamericano y caribeño)Tags Amazon / Amazonas -
O Espírito da TV
Documentary made by the Vídeo nas Aldeias project, showing the reactions of the indigenous group Waiãpi, contacted in 1973 during the construction of the Perimetral-Norte highway in Amapá, when seeing their own image and that of Indians Gavião, Nhambiquara, Krahô, Guarani and Kaiapó on a television set. Without a reporter or narrator, editing is restricted, in order to interfere or guide the testimonials as little as possible. The title refers to the statement of the shaman who felt affected when he saw images of a ritual to evoke spirits on the screen. The recognition of similar tribes, the image of their tribe in face of white people and gold miners who threaten them, and the preservation of image and memory through video fascinate and concern the communties who recognize not only the effects and threats of video, but mainly its effectiveness and its power. (Associação Cultural Videobrasil) -
A festa da moça
Chief Pedro Mãmãindê, who conducted both the proceedings and the shoot itself, describes the necessity of strengthening the girls of his village by secluding them after their first menses. After several months, the village throws a party, with singing, feasting, and the symbolic abduction of the girl by an allied village. When the Nambiquara of Mato Grosso see videotape of themselves performing this ritual, the excess of Western clothing makes them uncomfortable. The ritual is then re-enacted with traditional body painting and adornment. Euphoric, they resolve to take up the lip- and nose-piercing of boys again in front of the camera, re-establishing a tradition abandoned for over 20 years. (Vimeo description) -
Martírio
Filmed over the course of 40 years, indigenous expert and filmmaker Vincent Carelli seeks out the origins of the Guaraní Kaiowá genocide. A conflict of disproportionate forces: the peaceful and obstinate insurgency of the dispossessed Guaraní Kaiowá against the powerful apparatus of agribusiness. While fighting against the Brazilian Congress in order not to be evicted from their homes, the 50.000 indigenous people demand the demarcation of the space that belongs to them. With rigorous investigative work, this Brazilian director recorded the birthplace of the resistance movement in the 1980s and tells, with his own voice and those of the indigenous people, of the social and political injustices suffered. The stunning archival historical images, new footage, both color and black and white, hearings in Brazilian Congress, and even interviews with those opposed to the Guaraní Kaiowá’s rights, reveal the crudeness with which they coexist every day: among the violation of their civil rights and the fortitude with which they confront the usurpers. This epic documentary has become a sensation in Brazil and the ultimate testimony that unifies these unheard voices by “ethnocide actions,” the cruel synthesis of a conflict without a foreseen solution in the near future. (Pragda) -
Corumbiara
A personal account of 20 years of video activism in Corumbiara, a municipality in western Brazil. In order to stop the destruction of the habitat of isolated Native Americans, their existence will have to be proven in court. Back in 1986, filmmaker Vincent Carrelli first got involved in a hunt for the remains of an Indian village, which had been wiped off the map by a landowner. Unfortunately, the tools that they found were insufficient to stand up in court. In the years that followed, Carrelli returned to the region on several occasions, convinced that the Native Americans lived there and determined to record this fact with his camera. The film documents the heartwarming contact between the researchers and a family of Canoé Indians, and contains unique footage of one of the last survivors of an unknown tribe. But the activists also must deal with disappointing defeats in the face of landowners, lumber merchants and farmers, and even instances of gruesome violence. Ultimately, the film also asks questions about the legitimacy of the hunt for footage. To what extent is it justified to invade the habitat of people who shun any attempt at contact - even if that invasion occurs with the intent to protect them from greater external aggression? (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)Tags Amazon / Amazonas