Isola Edipo, in collaboration with Giornate degli Autori and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, presents a day-long event devoted to indigenous filmmaker Morzaniel Ɨramari, with a special focus on Yanomami cinema

Now in its seventh year, The cinema of inclusivity: workshop and screenings is back on the Lido with a brand-new program. For the occasion, Isola Edipo, in collaboration with Giornate degli Autori and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, presents The Eyes of the Forest, a day-long event devoted to one of the leading directors of Yanomami cinema, Morzaniel Ɨramari, along with a broader focus on indigenous Yanomami cinema in Brazil.

In line with the directives of the 2024 Venice Biennale Arte, which spotlight foreign, immigrant, and diaspora artists, this year The Cinema of Inclusivity: workshop and screenings showcases the filmic gaze of one of the Amazon’s best-known indigenous populations and its centrality on the international film scene. It’s a political stand that gives the rainforest’s eyes, bodies, and voices back to the rainforest itself and brings to the table a concern with the safeguarding of the Earth’s green lungs and the environmental and cultural situation of the Yanomamis.

The Eyes of the Forest takes place on September 4th, 2023, at the Sala Laguna, with Morzaniel Ɨramari and the producers and directors Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and Eryk Rocha in attendance.

The program
At 10 a.m., there will be a screening of the film Urihi haromatimapë (Earth-Forest Healers) by Morzaniel Ɨramari, followed by a masterclass with the director, joined by producers Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and Eryk Rocha and anthropologist Ana Maria Machado.

At 6 p.m., four short films will be screened: Mãri hi (The Tree of Dream) and Xapiripë Yanopë (House of Spirits) by Morzaniel Ɨramari and Dario Kopenawa and Yuri u xëatima thë (Fishing with Timbó) and Thuë pihi kuuwi (A Woman Thinking), by Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino, and Roseane Yariana. A conversation with Morzaniel Ɨramari, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, and Eryk Rocha follows.

Some of the films being screened are on view at the exhibition “Siamo Foresta” (June 22nd to October 29th, 2023), organized by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain at the Triennale di Milano.

Yanomami Filmmaking
The audiovisual production of the Yanomami people only began in 2010, with an audiovisual training project promoted by the Ministry of Culture’s Indigenous Culture Center in partnership with the school Video nas Aldeias. This project, which trained countless indigenous filmmakers in Brazil, allowed Morzaniel Ɨramari to make his directorial debut in the Watorikɨ collective, in the Demini region of the Yanomami Indigenous Territory.

In 2016, the Núcleo Xapono Audiovisual Xapono (NAX) was created in the region of the Marauiá river in the Yanomami Indigenous Lands, about 300 km away from the Watorikɨ house. Thanks to collective funding through the Kurikama Yanomami Association that involved a multitude of young men and women, NAX has since then produced 14 short films on themes that deal with shamanic knowledge, the work carried out by the association, and traditional practices.

The most recent film produced by the Yanomami was carried out by a group of young people taking part in the Collective of Yanomami Communicators formed by the Hutukara Associação Yanomami. The aim was to produce both materials that would circulate within the Yanomami as well as materials for other peoples and the non-indigenous, who will be able to learn more about the Yanomami people and their culture and also step up the fight for indigenous rights from new points of view, in addition to encouraging the circulation of traditional knowledge among the young and the elders.

Through a partnership between Hutukara and the production company Aruac Filmes, promoting audiovisual training of young people in the Demini region, three new short films were produced: Mãri hi (The Tree of Dream) by Morzaniel Ɨramari; Thuë pihi kuuwi (A Woman Thinking), and Yuri u xëatima thë (Fishing with Timbó), by Aida Harika, Roseane Yariana and Edmar Tokorino.

Films and directors
MÃRI HI
THE TREE OF DREAM
Morzaniel Ɨramari
2023, 17′
When the flowers of the Mãri tree blossom, dreams arise. The words of a great shaman guide us on an oneiric experience through the synergy between cinema and the Yanomami dream, presenting the poetics and teachings of the forest people.

URIHI HAROMATIMAPË
EARTH-FOREST HEALERS
Morzaniel Ɨramari
2014, 60′
The thunder is warning us: “The Earth is sick”. To heal it, Davi Kopenawa gathered Yanomami shamans from different regions of the territory. With the help of the food of the spirits – yãkoana powder – they will treat the ills caused by the cities and the diseases brought by the white people.

XAPIRIPË YANOPË
HOUSE OF SPIRITS
Morzaniel Ɨramari, Dario Kopenawa
2010, 24′
An intimate and subjective expedition into the initiation of young Yanomami shamans from Demini village, who learn to communicate with the xapiri pë (spirits), feeding them with yãkoana powder (the food of the spirits).

Morzaniel Ɨramari (Watorikɨ, Demini, Brazil, 1980) 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 that aims 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. Ɨramari took part 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 joined in on 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. Ɨramari’s film 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. In collaboration with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, the films made by Morzaniel Ɨramari are on view at the exhibitions “The Yanomami Struggle” at The Shed (NY) and “Siamo Foresta” at the Triennale di Milano.

THUË PIHI KUUWI
A WOMAN THINKING
Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino, Roseane Yariana
2023, 9′
A Yanomami woman observes a shaman during the preparation of Yãkoana, the food of the spirits. Through the account of a young indigenous woman, the Yãkoana that feeds the Xapiri and allows shamans to enter the world of spirits also prompts a meeting of perspectives and imaginations.

YURI U XËATIMA THË
FISHING WITH TIMBÓ
Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino, Roseane Yariana
2023, 10′
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 proposes the re-enchantment of images as a way of storytelling.

Yanomami filmmakers Aida Harika (Watorikɨ, Demini, 1998) and Edmar Tokorino (Watorikɨ, Demini, 1986) live in the village of Watorikɨ. They are part of a Yanomami media collective initiated in 2018 by Hutukara Associação Yanomami, with support from the 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. Roseane Yariana (Watorikɨ, Demini, 1998) 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 in 2024), directed by Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and based on the book by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert. Yuri u xëatima thë (Fishing with Timbó) and Thuë pihi kuuwi (A Woman Thinking) are their first films as directors.