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Hi, good evening.
Thanks for proposing the issue.
So I will tell you about the indigenous movie school.
That's what we do.
I don't know if you found this intervention unusual,
exotic, maybe inappropriate.
Many times I've heard this remark:
"You are polluting the indigenous people with our technology."
Don't you think that the indigenous people are passive
in the intense process of cultural change
they undergo in their lives and communities.
It is discussed daily.
Evidently, the elderly do their role
in demanding respect for the traditions
and keeping the group's memory alive.
However, it is clear that in each new generation,
the young people look at the world outside.
Biculturalism is an unavoidable historical reality.
The indigenous people want to take part in the modernity,
and in the historical process of this moment of humanity.
This modernity has caused so many losses,
like the death of many of the elderly due to contagious diseases
and the loss of much knowledge with them.
This modernity has corrupted many internal mechanisms
of transmission of knowledge and traditions.
Why not use modernity, technology in favor of tradition, too?
This is not contradictory. This is what we've been working on.
It's clear that this work has a reason.
It arose out of 15 years of engagement and living among the indigenous peoples.
One day, I thought: "How can I contribute?"
I knew that memory is a key issue for the indigenous people.
This is how I started this project 25 years ago.
First, the project was not born ready.
I started to use my camera to help visionary leaders,
who had a discourse of cultural resistance,
and recording was extremely stimulating as a tool.
It was a resonance box for the discourse of cultural resistance.
At their request, I started to visit and record
their cultural heritage,
which many times needed to be brought back to memory,
brought back to life, lived again.
Little by little I started to travel
and discovered that the appearance of the indigenous media
or of the native media was a global process.
The Inuit in the North Pole, the Aborigines in Australia,
the Saami in Norway, in Finland,
they all were already doing it.
From there we started a 2nd stage of the project, training indigenous film makers.
Making documentaries is a very interesting self-learning process.
There is a reason why most of our students are indigenous teachers
who are now working to implement their own educational system,
to teach their history, their culture, and they are researchers of their own culture.
At a certain point, a high-quality indigenous production started to be acknowledged in many festivals
and has found a new space.
I think Brazil has experienced something very positive in the last years.
It has looked at itself and cherished its cultural diversity.
All this movement has been supported by a cultural policy
I would call revolutionary
which, naturally, included the indigenous people.
It is the policy of inclusion of marginal populations.
There is another light at the end of the tunnel,
a very positive thing that happened in 2008.
A law made teaching about indigenous cultures
mandatory in Brazilian elementary and secondary schools.
The fact is that the population hardly knows
a thing about the indigenous people.
This may be a turning point in this lack of knowledge.
Of course, this act is still a letter of good intentions.
It will take many years and a lot of investment
to train teachers and produce teaching materials.
However, we have made an effort to deliver
this production of indigenous documentaries to the schools.
They bring a new look at their reality
because they make intimacy possible,
because they let people speak their own language.
They show a brand new view of the indigenous people.
This view does not show the difference as exotic;
it humanizes and brings us closer to the indigenous people.
This is basically what I had to say,
and to talk about movies,
we have to show something.
I've selected 3 min from a movie that is still being cut.
Maybe it can demonstrate and make my point clear.
We will see two Guarani children from the Rio Grande do Sul State recorded by a teenager.
They speak their own language
and are going to cut some wood in the forest reserve on the neighboring farm.
We will see how the children can express the joy and the drama of a people.
How much will you sell it for?
She's already said, R$10.00.
And all together, how much? R$50.00?
You're crazy. It's not worth even R$0.05.
The white men always want to pay less and take more.
The white men's children too.
We, Mbya-Guarani, can't set traps too far anymore.
because the white men will shoot at us.
See how it's well cut.
Look at this, they cut a cherry tree!
They cut what we eat.
All these trees have a spirit.
They don't want to die.
But the white men cut them with a chain saw.
This is a fruit tree.
Only the females give fruit.
It took too long! Come dance with me... sat, turned.
Come my love! Please, in loneliness,
and understand me, close by, my love.
Farmer!
Don't go away. Don't go away, please.
Farmer!
Stone drunk farmer.
Come here with the machine gun man and you, too,
- ...to kill me. - Didi, you're crazy.
150, wanting ***.
I want to k...
Farmer come here, the gunman with you, to kill me. I want to die.
That day was fun.
I was the first to run.
We ran away and dropped the food along the way.
They shot at us three times.
- But the shots hit only the trees. - Machine gun shots?
The farmer, a white man.
Avito started to cry, he was really scared.
Thanks.