Films of the Ayoreo Video Project
Farewell to Savage | 2017 | 70 minutes | Lucas Bessire (with Bernard Belisário and Ernesto de Carvalho)
This film uses footage from the video workshop, a drone and archival footage shot by the filmmaker in this place a decade prior to craft a non-linear reflection on the power of visuality to provoke new ways of relating to the world, each other, and alternate versions of ourselves. In visual dialogue with each of the Ayoreo videos, the film documents how the video making process unleashed new potentials and dilemmas for all involved, in ways that pose important questions for anthropological theory, practice and advocacy.
Yiquijmapiedie - Our Ways | 2017 | 52 minutes | Chagabi Etacore
In this quiet reflection on making and belonging, the leader of a band that made first contact in 2004 and two others re-create material objects that were once crucial to survival in the pre-contact forest but that have little use in the present and are thus being forgotten. Working together, the three protagonists show the process of digging up a water root, creating wooden storage containers for water, and making bark ropes for a swing game. They provide subtle commentaries on their activities and instruct younger generations about these practices.
Ore Enominone - Visions | 2017 | 92 minutes | Ajesua Etacoro & Daijnidi Picanerai
This film is an ethnofictional performance about the creation and inhabitation of a dream world in the forest. Created by the survivors of a deadly 1986 first contact, the Totobiegosode protagonists play a fictional version of themselves and share their unique knowledge of traditional foods, practices and beliefs. Blurring the lines between staged reenactments and serious engagements with present challenges, the film opens new spaces for its creators to reflect on the ruptures of the past and to envision a more inhabitable future.
Ujirei - Regeneration | 2017 | 55 minutes | Mateo Sobode Chiqueno
This is a critical meditation on contemporary Ayoreo realities by a 65-year-old Ducodegose man and respected leader who played instrumental roles in his people’s transition from forest to evangelical mission. Filmed over the course of eight months on an evangelical mission, the fragmentary film offers a critique of political marginality and shares one man’s visionary perspective on the destruction and rebirth of Ayoreo society. The film was an official selection of the 2016 Forumdoc film festival in Belo Horizonte Brazil and the 2018 Premio Anaconda festival, where it earned a Special Recognition prize.