Indigenous Voices Shorts

Following our call for Indigenous documentaries, we have curated a programme of outstanding short documentaries presenting Indigenous perspectives on the climate crisis, biodiversity and water management. 
We present the three following films:

Festa de Pajés
by Iberê Périssé
Brasil, 2023, 20 Minutes
Festa de Pajés documents the meeting of shamans of the Ye'epá Mahsã People who live at the top of the Rio Negro, close to the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira in the state of Amazonas. A meeting that had not taken place for over 100 years, as it had been banned by Salesian missionaries. Led by Álvaro Tukano, family members from the most varied generations, villages and ethnicities, bring together their knowledge and traditions and provide a true celebration involving the medicines of Food, Tobacco, Coca, Rapé and Kaapi, also known as Ayahuasca. The film records this moment that has been practiced for millennia in the Amazon Rainforest and that happens again in the 21st Century, perpetuating the way in which indigenous peoples connect with their ancestry and spiritual forces.

Autodemarcação Já!
by Aldira Akai Munduruku, Beka Saw, Munduruku, Rilcelia Akay Munduruku
Brasil, 2023, 7 Minutes
Tired of invasions by miners and loggers, and at risk to their lives, the Munduruku fighters join the men and boys in the struggle for territorial demarcation.

Tocumagu Ru Mani'I - Our Way Promotes Life
by Myrian Vasques Tikuna, Markus S. Enk
Brasil, 2023, 10 Minutes
For the indigenous Tikuna in the Brazilian Amazon region of Alto Solimões, you only eat healthy when you plant healthy. Through agriculture and native gastronomy, sometimes transforming ancestral techniques, sometimes retaking this tradition, the techniques to promote life are learned and passed by generations. This short-film was elaborated during the COVID-19 pandemics in Brazil and was recorded in the Tikuna community of Guanabara III and Filadélfia in the triple border of Brazil/Colombia/Peru using smartphones.