An annual round table promoted by Isola Edipo with the collaboration ofGiornate degli Autori and the participation of Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, dedicated investigating the relationship between cinema and inclusion by meeting with some international cinema maestros.
This round table, aimed at a heterogeneous audience composed of cinema and art students, the press, Festival attendees and the public in the territory, provides for the selection of one or more works of the artist nominated for the current year accompanied by a master class.
Morzaniel Ɨramari (b. 1980, Watorikɨ [Demini][Demini], Brazil) is one of the first Yanomami artists working in cinema. He was trained as a filmmaker through the Video nas Aldeias project (Video in the Villages Project), a brazilian NGO to strengthen Indigenous rights through audiovisual production. In his most recent film, “Mãri hi – The Tree of Dream”, he presents the Yanomami knowledge of dreams through the words of the great shaman Davi Kopenawa and a poetic composition of images of the forest.
The Yanomami are an indigenous people of hunter-gatherers and slash-and-burn horticulturalists, numbering approximately 54,000. They occupy a territory of 220,000 km2 located in the northern Amazon, on both sides of the border between Venezuela and Brazil, which represents nearly 1.5% of the tropical forest still preserved on the planet. In the far north of the Brazilian Amazon, there are approximately 27,000 Yanomami. Their territory — slightly larger than Portugal — was legally recognized by presidential decree in May 1992. These “inhabitants of the forest” (urihi thëri thë pë in Yanomami) are thus one of the best-known indigenous populations of Amazonia, whose voice and knowledge are increasingly important to listen to today. In parallel to their struggle to thwart the invasion of their lands by illegal miners and to defend the recognition of their rights, several Yanomami artists have begun to make the world aware of the richness of their traditions and the beauty of their way of life.
Although the Yanomami people are known around the world through their images, its own audiovisual production has only begun in 2010, through an audiovisual training project carried out by the Indigenous Culture Points project, of the Ministry of Culture of Brazil, in partnership with Video nas Aldeias Project. It is from this project, which formed countless indigenous filmmakers in Brazil, that Morzaniel Ɨramari begins his production as a director in the collective house of Watorikɨ, in the Demini region of the Yanomami Indigenous Land, by releasing the film “House of the Spirits – Xapiripë yanopë”, the same year. In 2014, he released his feature film “Urihi haromatimapë – The Forest-land Healers”. Both films have been selected and awarded in film festivals around the world. Morzaniel’s point of view reveals with grace, poetry and forcefulness everyday aspects related to shamanism and its centrality in the life of the Yanomami people.
In 2016, the “Núcleo Xapono Audiovisual Xapono” (NAX) was created in the region of the Marauiá river, in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, about 300 km from Watorikɨ’s house. Based on collective funding through the Kurikama Yanomami Association and involving several young people, men and women, NAX has since then produced 14 short films on themes that deal with shamanic knowledge, the work carried out by their association and traditional practices.
The most recent film production by the Yanomami is carried out by a group of young people that take part of the “Collective of Yanomami Communicators” formed by the Hutukara Associação Yanomami with the aim of producing both materials to circulate within the Yanomami and materials for other peoples and non-indigenous, who will be able to learn more about the Yanomami people and their knowledge and also expand the fight for indigenous rights from new points of view, in addition to encouraging the circulation of traditional knowledge among young and elders.
Through a partnership between Hutukara and the production company Aruac Filmes to promote audiovisual training of Young people in the Demini region, three new short-films were produced. “Mãri hi – The Tree of Dream” is directed by Morzaniel Ɨramari; “Thuë pihi kuuwi – A Woman Thinking” and “Yuri u xëatima thë – The Fishing with Timbó”, are both directed by Aida Harika, Roseane Yariana and Edmar Tokorino.
The films directed by the Yanomami reveal the production of new images and narratives about the Yanomami people, emphasizing their beauty and their refined knowledge of the forest. The films are a way of protecting their own images and of making non-indigenous people really get to know the Yanomami people in another way, taming their predatory impetus over the forest-land, “urihi” in the Yanomami language, understood as a living entity that includes both humans and non-humans.
Morzaniel Ɨramari (b. 1980, Watorikɨ [Demini][Demini], Brazil) is one of the first Yanomami artists working in cinema. He was trained as a filmmaker through the Video nas Aldeias project (Video in the Villages Project), a brazilian NGO to strengthen Indigenous rights through audiovisual production. His first short film, House of Spirits (co-directed with Dario Kopenawa), was made in 2010. The feature film Earth-Forest Healers (2014) won the award for Best Film at the Forumdoc.BH festival. He has participated in the 4th Week of Directors in Rio de Janeiro (2014) and in the Biennial of Indigenous Cinema in São Paulo (2016). He has coordinated communications for the Brazilian Yanomami association Hutukara. He has participated in the filming of The Falling Sky (to be released in 2024), directed by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and based on the book by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert. The film Mãri hi – The Tree of Dream (2023) had its international premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest (UK) and won the award for Best Documentary Short Film in the Brazilian competition of the É Tudo Verdade / It’s All True – 28th International Documentary Film Festival, therefore qualifying to compete for the Oscar nominations 2024 for Best Documentary Short Film.
In collaboration with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, films from Morzaniel are shown in exhibitions such ‘The Yanomami Struggle’ at The Shed (NY), ‘Siamo Foresta’ at Triennale Milano (Milan, Italy).
Morzaniel Ɨramari’s cinema is a journey into the Yanomami shamanic universe. His first film “House of the Spirits – Xapiripë yanopë” presents the collective house of Watorikɨ, which literally means “Mountain of the Wind” which for the Yanomami is the place where the spirits live, and is the director’s birthplace. In this film, he intertwines shamanism with everyday activities in the community to introduce the Yanomami to non-indigenous people. His second film, “Urihi haromatimapë – The Forest-land Healers” is an invitation to a shamanic ritual that brought together several Yanomami shamans to cure the land of the evils and diseases caused by non-indigenous. Morzaniel’s photography elaborates a time that allows the spectator to dance next to the slender bodies of the shamans. In his most recent film, “Mãri hi – The Tree of Dream”, he presents the Yanomami knowledge of dreams through the words of the great shaman Davi Kopenawa and a poetic composition of images of the forest.
Ana Maria Machado holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology. She has been working with indigenous people in Brazil for 20 years and has been specifically involved with the Yanomami indigenous people, from the Brazilian Amazon Forest, since 2007. She is a fluent speaker of the Yanomami language and has reasonable proficiency in the Sanöma language.
Between 2007 and 2012, she worked for Comissão Pró Yanomami (CCPY) and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) in the Yanomami education program. From 2010 to 2014, she worked as a research advisor to Yanomami youth from the Watorikɨ community, conducting research on shamanism in collaboration with Morzaniel Ɨramari.
She has been providing advisory support to the Yanomami artists Ehuana Yaira and Joseca Mokahesi.
In partnership with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, she supports Yanomami artists in the context of the growing visibility of contemporary indigenous art. As a member of the Rede Pró Yanomami, she collaborates with the Hutukara Yanomami Association and Yanomami partners in the ongoing support for denouncing the invasion of garimpeiros (illegal gold miners) in the Yanomami Indigenous Land and violations of human rights.
Year: 2014
Screen Time: 60 min
Directed by: Morzaniel Ɨramari
Produced by da: Hutukara Associação Yanomami (HAY), Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), Observatório da Educação Escolar Indígena da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Synopsis:: The thunders are warning: “the Earth is sick”. To cure it, Davi Kopenawa gathered Yanomami shamans from different regions of the territory. With the help of food of spirits, the yãkoana powder, they will treat the ills caused by the cities and the diseases of the white people.
Year: 2010
Screen Time: 24 min
Directed by: Morzaniel Ɨramari, Dario Kopenawa
Produced by Associação de Cultura e Meio Ambiente, Vídeo nas Aldeias, Rede Povos da Floresta, Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro (FOIRN) Con il supporto di: Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas (FUNAI), Ministério da Cultura/ Pontos de Cultura
Synopsis: Intimate and subjective incursion into the initiation of young Yanomami shamans from the Demini village, who learn to communicate with the xapiri pë (spirits), feeding them with yãkoana powder (food of spirits).
Year: 2023
Screen Time: 17 min
Directed by: Morzaniel Ɨramari
Produced by: Aruac Filmes Coproduttore: Hutukara Associação Yanomami
Associate producer: Gata Maior Filmes
Synopsis: When the flowers of the Mãri tree blossom, dreams arise. The words of a great shaman guide an oneiric experience through the synergy between cinema and the Yanomami dream, presenting poetics and teachings of the forest people.
Year: 2023
Screen Time: 10 min
Directed by: Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino and Roseane Yariana
Produced by: Aruac Filmes Coproduttore: Hutukara Associação Yanomami
Associate producer: Gata Maior Filmes
Synopsis: Two young Yanomami filmmakers describe the practice of fishing with timbó, a vine traditionally used to stun fish. The combination of voices and perspectives in the film suggests the re-enchantment of images as a way of storytelling.
Year: 2023
Screen Time: 9 min
Directed by: Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino and Roseane Yariana
Produced by: Aruac Filmes
Co-producer: Hutukara Associação Yanomami
Associate producer: Gata Maior Filmes
Synopsis: A Yanomami woman observes a shaman during the preparation of the Yãkoana, the food of the spirits. Through the narrative of a young indigenous woman, the Yãkoana that feeds the Xapiri and allows shamans to enter the world of spirits also proposes a meeting of perspectives and imaginations.
Yanomami filmmakers Aida Harika (b. 1998, Watorikɨ [Demini][Demini]) and Edmar Tokorino (b. 1986, Watorikɨ [Demini][Demini]) live in the village of Watorikɨ. They are part of a Yanomami media collective initiated in 2018 by Hutukara Associação Yanomami, with support from Instituto Socioambiental. Since 2021, Harika and Tokorino have participated in several workshops to produce videos and short films, reflecting a growing interest in media technologies. The first two co-directed shorts are shown here for the first time. Roseane Yariana (b. 1998, Watorikɨ [Demini][Demini]) was also part of the audiovisual workshop in 2018. She lives in Buriti village and is the daughter of Yanomami artist Joseca Mokahesi. The three filmmakers participated in the filming of The Falling Sky (to be released), directed by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and based on the book by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert. Yuri u xëatima thë – The Fishing with Timbó and Thuë pihi kuuwi- A Woman Thinking are their first films as directors.
In collaboration with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, films from Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino and Roseane Yariana are shown in exhibitions such ‘The Yanomami Struggle’ at The Shed (NY) , ‘Siamo Foresta’ at Triennale Milano (Milan, Italy).
Urihi Haromatimapë by Morzaniel Ɨramari 60 min, 2014
Xapiripë Yanopë by Morzaniel Ɨramari 24 min, 2010
Mãri hi by Morzaniel Ɨramari 17 min, 2023
Yuri u xëatima thë by Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino and Roseane Yariana 10 min, 2023
Thuë pihi kuuwi by Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino and Roseane Yariana 9 min, 2023
For the necessary and tireless ability to observe and narrate the architecture of institutions highlighting contradictions, disparities and possibilities. His ability to reveal practices used and or suffered by individuals and communities has been indispensable know-how for the world for decades.
For the ability to provide a view capable of highlighting journeys of liberation and contexts of denial through the story of landscapes of different natures and through the language of amazing cinematography and photography over time.
For the ability to have immediately been able to narrate, through an always rigorous and surprising cinematic view, history and stories through the eyes of women, revealing the tensions and contradictions of a perspective too long removed or betrayed.
For the constant and always firm ability to know how to narrate the roots of our history and our culture without rhetoric and without suffering the weight of moral judgement, keeping contradiction alive: rich and creative space,within which she was able to portray women, resistance, death, science and religion, through an always complex portrait of real encounters between possible forms of reality.
Michele Placido, Julia Von Heinz, Oliver Guerpillon, Jaco Van Dormael, Michel Winterbottom
For the ability to have been able to unite a world divided by the pandemic, restoring the perception of a composite and conscious horizon to our wounded eyes.
Michele Placido, Julia Von Heinz, Jaco Van Dormael, Olivier Guerpillon and Michael Winterbottom with Isolation, through the creation of a constellation of visions characterised by the expression of different cinematic identities, perform an act of inclusion indispensable to our times and to cinema.
To be the guardian of an independent and intact look in the face of a torn reality that tends to crush the imagination on a single total vision. And for the ability to know how to gather and fit a form of salvation of harmony between living beings and the environment on a world drowning in the noise of catastrophe.
