Brazil Unfiltered: 'Piripkura'
Line up: Renata Terra, Mariana Oliva, Bruno Jorge | 2017 | Brazil | 81’ | EN subtitles

Brazil Unfiltered comes back from 1 to 31 October with a special curation of documentary films to contextualise the presidential elections taking place in Brazil this month. Centred around territorial struggles and the frontlines of resistance, the programme starts with a masterpiece from the late Eduardo Coutinho, followed by a bonus screening, a sequence of 3 films set in the Amazon, and a closure event + screening about climate resilience and ecological farming.

Piripkura is the chronicle of an expedition in the Amazonian habitat of the nomadic Piripkura ethnic group’s last remaining members, who can only have their territory protected if there is proof they are still living there. Two of only three of them are known to still live in this area. Every two years, a team of governmental workers trek into the jungle for weeks in search of them. Their most important possession is a torch that was lit in 1998 and has remained so ever since. The area where they live is encircled by farms and sawmills, whose almost inevitable expansion is taking place through violent means.

The film sheds light on the tragedy befalling indigenous Amazon people: the systematic violence used against them is a constant menacing presence. Despite the impressive resilience and tenacity of the last of the Piripkura, an inevitable question hangs in the air: how long can it last?

Winner of the Amsterdam Human Rights Award at IDFA 2017.

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