Apiyemiyekî?

Forum Expanded 2020

Produced from within a series of works dedicated to constructing a critical cosmology of the military dictatorship in Brazil in the exhibition “Meta-Archive 1964–1985” at Sesc-Belenzinho, this cinematographic portrait takes its starting point from Brazilian educator and Indigenous rights militant Egydio Schwade’s archive – Casa da Cultura de Urubuí – containing over 3000 drawings made by the Waimiri-Atroari, a people native to the Brazilian Amazon, during their first literacy process. Based on Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, drawings became one of the first methods of knowledge exchange and production between them. During these exercises, the most recurrent question posed by the Waimiri-Atroari was: Why did Kamña (“the civilized”) kill Kiña (Waimiri-Atraori)? Apiyemiyekî? (Why?). The drawings document and construct a collective visual memory from their learning process, perspective, and territory while attesting to a series of violent attacks they were submitted to during the dictatorship. The film animates and transposes their drawings to the landscapes and sights that they narrate, searching to echo their question and trusting that memory is a necessary engine to build a common future.

by Ana Vaz
with Egydio Schwade, Keila Serruya Brazil / France / Netherlands / Portugal 2019 Portuguese 28’ Colour & Black/White Documentary form

With

Egydio Schwade
Keila Serruya

Crew

Director	Ana Vaz
Cinematography	Ana Vaz
Editing	Ana Vaz
Music	Guilherme Vaz
Sound Design	Ana Vaz, Nuno da Luz
Sound	Ana Vaz
Production Manager	Rafael Moretti
Executive Producer	Sesc São Paulo
Producers	Olivier Marboeuf, Anže Peršin
Co-Producers	Annemiek van Gorp, Rene Goossens, Ana Vaz

Produced by

Spectre Productions

http://www.spectre-productions.com http://www.spectre-productions.com

Stenar Projects

Photos

Ana Vaz

Ana Vaz, born in 1986 in Brasilia, Brazil, is an artist, filmmaker, and founder of the in(ter)disciplinary collective COYOTE. Her film-poems are underpinned by experimental collages of images and sounds, discovered and produced, to reflect upon situations and contexts which are historically and geographically marked by narratives of violence and repression. Expansions or consequences of her films, her practice may also be embodied in writing, critical pedagogy, installations, film programs, or ephemeral events. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Kazuko Trust Award presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of artistic excellence and innovation in her moving-image work.

Filmography

2007 Sacris Pulso; 15 min. 2012 Entre temps; 12 min. · Les mains, negatives; with Julien Creuzet, 15 min. 2013 A idade da pedra; 30 min. 2014 Occidente; 15 min. 2015 A Film, Reclaimed; with Tristan Bera, 19 Min. 2016 Ha terra!; 12 min. · Amérika: Bahía de las flechas; 8 min. 2018 Olhe bem as montanhas; 30 min. · Amazing Fantasy; 3 min. · Atomic Garden; 8 min. 2019 Apiyemiyekî?; 28 min., Forum Expanded 2020 2020 Pseudosphynx; 9 min. · 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird · 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird; 32 min., Forum Expanded 2021 · Pseudosphynx; 8 min. 2022 É Noite na América; 66 min. · A árvore

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023