ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival, ICA London
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MAKE INDIGENOUS CINEMA? AND WHAT NEXT FOR INDIGENOUS FILMMAKERS?
18 films by Indigenous filmmakers, curated by Takumã Kuikuro, Graci Guarani and Ziel Karapotó
Festival Programme 19-21 May 2023
ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival 2023 focused on the contemporaneity of Indigenous culture and its alternative aesthetically representation through audio-visual arts.
Presented by People’s Palace Projects and curated by Brazilian filmmakers Takumã Kuikuro, Graciela Guarani and Ziel Karapotó, the programme reflects on the future of Indigenous peoples, their experiences, from ongoing struggles for land rights to the impact of the climate emergency on Indigenous cultural heritage, and what their arts represents.
Featuring 18 thought-provoking works from 21 filmmakers, being 72% female, representing 13 ethnic groups across 10 regions in Brazil and neighbouring countries Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Argentina, the festival was a celebration of the rich diversity and versatility of Indigenous storytelling.
ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival ran from 19 to 21 May, at the ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts (The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH)
*The Festival is part of Film Hub London.
Indigenous Artists in London, May 2023
DAY 1- Cinema and the lines of art: from existence to protest
Friday, 19 May 2023, 6:30 pm + Q&A with Indigenous Filmmakers
THE WORD BECAME FLESH | Dir Ziel Karapotó | 2019 | 6min | Experimental
Ziel Karapotó’s powerful protest uses his own body to expose the long-lasting scars of European colonisation on Abya Yala, a poignant reminder of five centuries of oppression and trauma.
THIS CURRENCY IS NOT WHAT CARRIES ME | Dir Barbara Leite Matias | 2022 | 5min | Video Art
The artist makes an analogy between the seeds and coins she carries in her pocket, and her native world and capitalism.
PINJAWULI (THE POISON HAS REACHED ME) | Dir Bih Kezo | 2021 | 2min | Documentary
The strong smell of pesticides sprayed over plantations is detected by locals causing great concern, a reference to the widespread use of toxic chemicals in Brazil in recent years.
ITSUNI ÜGÜNO (JUNGLE FEVER) | Dir Takumã Kuikuro | 2022 | 10min | Fiction
A short tale about a shaman who receives an urgent message from a jaguar – the forest is engulfed in fire.
SIIA ARA (521 YEARS) | Dir Adanilo Reis | 2021 | 5min | Video Art
A wake-up call to rise from the remaining state of a colonial coma that Indigenous peoples and their territory were left in when the Europeans invaded five centuries ago.
LITHIPOKORODA | Dir Lilly Baniwa | 2021 | 28min | Experimental
Members of the Baniwa community reclaim their values, culture, and ancestral land that were degraded by colonisers.
JAYANKIRI | Dir Natali Mamani | 2021 | 9min | Video Essay
Devastated by uncertainties and having the memories of their lives interrupted by colonisation and migration, Andean people reflect on their nostalgia for their lost territory.
KARAIW A’E WÀ (THE CIVILISED) | Dir Zahy Tentehar | 2022 | 14min | Video Art
Are the ‘civilised’ really educated, cultured, enlightened? So how did the ‘civilised’ end up in this current toxic scenario? These are some of the provocative questions in the installation ‘Karaiw a’e wà’.
XE ÑE´E (MY BEING) | Dir Graci Guarani | 2022 | 7min | Experimental
This experimental short film explores collective thinking and subjective experiences, inspired by the ÑE´E worldview of the ‘world-soul’, revealing the uniqueness of each individual’s existence.
DAY 2 - The female body as weapon and trigger: a new reading of nudity
Saturday, 20 May 2023, 4:30 pm + Q&A with Indigenous Filmmakers
PE ATAJU JUMALI (HOT AIR) | Dir United Collective | 2023 | 25min | Experimental
A visually striking manifesto delivers an urgent message to the Global North on the devastating impact of emissions on the Global South’s forests, protected by Indigenous peoples.
IBIRAPEMA | Dir Olinda Yawar | 2022 | 50min | Experimental
A Tupinambá woman embarks on a journey between the mythical and everyday world, exploring museums and interacting with the world of Western art, the city, and controlled forests.
AIKU’È ZEPÉ (I STILL R-EXIST) | Dir Zahy Tentehar & Mariana Villas-Bôas | 2020 | 13min | Experimental
Emerging from the earth, representing the birth of a being in symbiosis with nature, this narrative expresses the concerns of an Indigenous woman struggling to survive in the chaos left by “civilisation”.
DAY 3 - Stepping into strange fields: the path of interventions and experiences to provoke dialogues
Sunday, 21 May 2023, 4:30 pm + Q&A with Indigenous Filmmakers
TEKO HAXY (BEING IMPERFECT) | Dir Patrícia Ferreira Pará Yxapy & Sophia Pinheiro | 2018 | 40min | Experimental Documentary
The documentary sets up the connection between an Indigenous filmmaker and a non-Indigenous visual artist and anthropologist, both facing the challenge of overcoming their inner conflicts.
MOTHER CAJARANA | Dir Barbara Leite Matias | 2021 | 6min | Video Art
A poetic tribute to the lost values of motherhood and femininity among Brazil’s north-eastern women, emphasising the effects of domestic violence, abuse, and toxic sexist culture.
CURSED HARVEST | Dir Denilson Baniwa | 2021 | 12min | Video Art
A Terena shaman receives premonitions in his dreams from the cosmic being Kipaé, warning him of humanity’s bad relationship with nature and the impending end of the world.
FOREST | Dir Lian Gaia & Patrick Raynaud | 2020 | 6min | Documentary
In the middle of the busiest avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil, an art intervention exhibits the works of Gaia, who stands up for the Indigenous cause and denounces the criminal forest fires in the Amazon and the Pantanal regions through her art.
PAOLA | Dir Ziel Karapotó | 2022 | 16min | Documentary
Paola and Ziel grew up in the Karapotó Indigenous territory but ended up following different paths. Their encounter in the city of Recife, Brazil is a ritual of healing and affection, reviving bonds of friendships.
THE SPIRITS JUST UNDERSTAND OUR LANGUAGE | Dir Cileuza Jemjusi, Robert Tamuxi and Valdeilson Jolasi | 2020 | 6min | Exp Documentary
Four Manoki elders in the Brazilian Amazon are the only remaining speakers of their native language, posing a risk to their connection with spirits. The younger generation takes action to preserve their mother tongue.
Watch the Q&A Session with Indigenous Curators at the ICA
ECO-nversation – PPP’s podcast about climate and culture – hosted by Yula Rocha, invited Graciela Guarani, Takuma Kuikuro and Ziel Karapotó to talk about the future of Indigenous Cinema.
You can listen to this fascinating conversation in English and Portuguese.
ECHOES Indigenous Festival in Paris 22-23 May
In partnership with Amazonie Immersive, the Festival travelled to Paris this year for a condensed two-day programme at Publicis cinema in Champs-Elysées. Graciela Guarani’s first feature film Horizonte Colorido (Colourful Horizon) had its world premier in the ECHOES Festival in Paris.
Graciela Guarani, Takuma Kuikuro and Ziel Karapoto engaged with the french audience on Q&A Sessions after the screenings.
Artist in Residence
Aislan Pankararu has created the visual identity of ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival, as part of his ongoing collaboration with PPP.
During his month-long residency in London in May 2023, based at Marcus Jake’ studio at Greenwich Peninsula, Aislan produced 13 paintings for his first international solo exhibition FEEL IT at the Brazilian Embassy in London (19 May to 1 June 2023).
I want you to feel it. Not to ask questions.
I want you to leave behind what you think you know about art, processes and practices.
I want you to feel the depth of it, or the lightness of it, in a simple way.
This exhibition is where we meet, not our explanations.
I am a visual artist, I am an Indigenous person, I am a doctor. I am the Northeast, I am caatinga, I am an exclusively Brazilian biome. I am contemporary. I am a secret of my people’s cosmology. I am pervaded by it all, and that’s how I feel and speak about almost everything in the world.
The paintings for this exhibition have all been made in London.
They are fruits of the weather, the discoveries and the incongruities I felt here. They are the mark I want to make as the first indigenous artist to occupy this space.
And I invite you to feel it.
Aislan Pankararu, London, May 2023.
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18 films by Indigenous filmmakers, curated by Takumã Kuikuro, Graci Guarani and Ziel Karapotó
