Collaborative Films in Indigenous Terms

The presentation, built from a long-term relationship of collaboration and dialogue between an indigenous filmmaker and anthropologist and a non-indigenous filmmaker and anthropologist, intends to bring reflections from some Amerindian principles that manage their relationships, both those present in ancestral practices and knowledge, as well as some features that has been described, theorized and reiterated by a good part of indigenous ethnology. The question that we propose is: how should “collaboration” be from the indigenous point of view, i.e., in terms that resonate with their own relational ontologies, particularly for the Manoki and Myky people?

We will also present some film experiments carried out in the last decade with the Manoki and the Myky people, who mediate several relationships at different levels, starting with the current research itself, which is guided by the themes and strategies chosen by the indigenous in the recording activities. One of the results of this long-term collaboration is the shared creation of Ijã Mytyli Cinema Collective, which has been producing documentaries with multiple authorships: always with indigenous (or shared) direction and a non-indigenous producer.

Typju Myky

Typju Mỹky is a 25 year old filmmaker who currently lives in a Japuíra indigenous village, in the municipality of Brasnorte, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Typju has been involved in documentary production since 2016 and has directed such films as “Ãjãi, the headball game of Mỹky and Manoki,” “Ini: the mỹky longhouse” (2020, 12 min), “Mỹky Community against Covid-19” (2020, 6 min) and “Jãkany Ãkakjey: Our Foods” (2021, 20 min). These works address the cultural practices and ancestral knowledge of the Japuíra community. Typju seeks experiences with indigenous masters and professionals in the audiovisual production area through involvement in the “Ijã Mytyli Cine Collective,” as the footage made by Mỹky filmmakers is of great importance for the strengthening of ways of existence and, at the same time, for celebrating our creativity.

André Lopes, MA

André Lopes is an anthropologist and filmmaker, conducting his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo, with a research internship at New York University. André is a researcher at the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology and at the Center for Amerindian Studies at USP. He is a founding member of Ijã Mytyli Cinema Collective of Manoki and Myky indigenous people, with whom he has been working since 2008. He participated in the training of indigenous filmmakers in six different peoples in Brazil, with which he directed or produced collaborative documentaries in the last decade. Among some of his award-winning works, his film “New York, just another city” won the Marsh Short Film Prize in 2021, for best short documentary, at the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Festival.

 

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