Cultural
and Ecological Hallway of the Amazon Borders
How
Original Populations live
in the Borders of the Amazon
Film
Introduction
In the past years, the indigenous and black ghetto peoples and their organization of political representativeness have established important social action, devising the implementation of public policies, international cooperation programs and non-governmental projects aiming at official recognition and the surveillance of their territories, as well as the preservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity of the forests around them among the different States that compose the Rain Forest. Such actions have been significant so as to guarantee the national territories sovereignty and endorse a productive occupation of border areas in regions where the government's fragility has favored illegal activities - wood exploration, mineral extraction, drug traffic, guerrillas, biopiracy - on all sides of our international borders.
The possibilities to implement the project for the film Cultural and Ecological Hallway of the Amazon Borders suggest a promising opportunity to the recognition and promotion of the complex reality of these social actions to the general public in Brazil and abroad, through the release of a DVD movie and a book enriched by the legitimate participation of indigenous and black ghetto leaders who have worked in the region for decades and will take part in the project.
The opening of new channels to spread these questions and voices, along with the promotion of the rich life histories of such Amazonian leaders; be they indigenous peoples or not, or black ghetto peoples, the result is promising to grow consciousness among audiences in Brazil and abroad about a much needed validation of our abundant social diversity.
Marcelo Piedrafita Iglesias
Doctor at the Laboratory of Research in Culture, Ethnicity and Development
(LACED - MN - UFRJ)
SPECIALLY INVITED ANTHROPOLOGIST
Goal
To produce the feature documentary "Cultural and Ecological Hallway of the Amazon Borders" in remote communities along the Amazon borders, encompassing their cultural and ethnic multiplicity.
Specific Goals
Exhibition of the contents at indigenous and black ghetto bilingual
schools with support from partner Organizations of this project;
Availability of 35 mm and DVD copies of the movie for film
festivals in Brazil and around the world;
Distribution of the copies to movie theaters in digital format,
in order to reach new media with the latest technology;
To reach a larger portion of the audience with exhibitions
on television networks from the co-producing countries;
To build a multifaceted panel of people, stimulating respect
toward the cultural, social, sexual, political, ethnic-racial and religious
diversity of the various groups and communities;
To foment the closeness and understanding among different generations,
groups and communities;
To elevate the self-esteem of the current inhabitants with
testimonials that increase the value of their experiences;
To transform the history of the Brazilian borders into products
that show important aspects of their ways to segmented audiences.
Justification
The film is a social-cultural project aimed at contributing to the intellectual education of the public in Brazil and in the countries that will suport the project, about issues concerning the Rain Forest and its borders' populations.
The motto is the issue concerning the notion of Nation to peoples who already lived in terra brasilis and are original people from the Rain Forest, which is today divided in different borders with different countries, languages, habits and legislation.
Following an extended research supported by the Laboratory of Research in Culture, Ethnicity and Development of the Anthropology Department of the National Museum and the Board of Directors of Studies and Research of FUNAI (National Indigenous Foundation), we decided to make a movie in cooperation with the indigenous and black ghetto communities of the forest who wish to participate in the project in the States of Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima and Amapá.
To understand how the communities who live in the Brazilian forest relate to the "Country Brazil" as a means to unite individuals of the "Peoples of the Forest Net" (an old alliance among the peoples of the forest created by Chico Mendes, Ailton Krenal and Davi Yanomami), and let them expose and reconstruct their own image while showing cultural diversity and different lifestyles.
Throughout the rivers, the air and the varações - paths opened inside the forest - the production crew will travel along different parts of the borders to unveil their singular cultural manifestations.
Expected Results
Promotion to mass audiences, in and outside of the country,
with the presence of the leaders who are part of the film's production
at debates and seminaries on the subject, as a testimony of the diversity
and protection of the ecological and cultural hallway of the Brazilian
Amazon;
To strengthen the identity and validate the art of the peoples
of the forest, especially toward the newer generations, which will have
impact inside and outside of these communities;
Launching the film at the bilingual indigenous schools with
distribution by the Secretary of Continuing Literacy and Diversity of
the Department of Education for Diversity and Citizenship of the General
Coordination of Indigenous Education of the Ministry of Education;
Commercialization of the film by the 10 participating communities
divided in quotes yet to be defined;
The work will serve as a testimony of the indigenous life conditions
and the remote communities who protect today the borders of the Amazon
and live in environmental reservation areas.
Target Public
The film "Cultural and Ecological Hallway of the Amazon Borders" should reach assorted target audiences which are basically divided into:
Partners and suppliers by the financial Supporters from all
the countries involved in this production;
Communities (North of Brazil);
Opinion leaders;
The society as a whole;
Public libraries;
Students;
Teachers;
Anthropologists;
People from different social strata who enjoy documentary movies.
Financial Feedback to the Co-Producers and Supporter
The co-producers' logo will be given a good display on the initial credits in the film as well as at the website www.tabocafilmes.com.br. The co-producers' names will be mentioned in interviews to the press by the participating peoples during the promotional tour of newspapers, radio and TV.
Special Feedback
In Brasil, we count on the Article I
Article I enabling the investment of Brazilian financial supporters.
5% of the film's copies and the documentary book must be donated to the financial supporters, 5% to the press, 10% to the communities involved and the reamining shall be commercialized with a publisher yet to be hired.
We can guarantee that the movie will have subtitles in English and French.
Political and Community Leaderships who Support the Project
Senator of Environment Marina Silva
Senator Eduardo Suplicy
Senator Tião Viana
Coordinator of the Amazon Audiovisual Oscar Ramos
Secretary of Acre's Indigenous Peoples - Francisco Piãko
Ashaninka
Leaders of the Suruí/Painter Peoples from Rondônia
- Almir Narayamoga Suruí
Katukina Teacher of the school Aldeia Martins - Teka Katukina
(in memorian)
Professor Benjamin André Shere Katukina
Director of FUNAI's Study and Research - Cláudio Romero
61º BIS Comando do Exército da Amazônia (The
Army in the Amazon Region) - Coronel Cláudio dos Santos
Description of the Movie
The footage will be made with one Aatom 16mm and two Panasonic HDVX 200 cameras.
The crew will include film technicians and indigenous artists.
Creation of the screenplay/Draft of the shoot
Hiring the crew
Pre-Production
Shooting/Travels
De-production
Montage
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing
Development of the negatives
Telecine the material
Image Montage
Structuring the Draft
Light setting
Printing of Copy 0
Printing the Copies
Graphic Art Creation (poster, DVD cover, billboard, website,
newspaper ads, among others)
DVD Authoring
DVD Printing
Paticipation of the Film in festivals
Launching and exhibitions in movie theaters around Brazil and
supporting countries
Activities
First Trip
The crew will travel along parts of the Eastern Amazon, that is, Amapá
and Roraima.
In a black ghetto at a border area indicated by local producer Mr. José
Araújo da Paixão - president of the Afro-Descendent Communities
Council of Amapá - the crew will shoot the activities in that ghetto
community.
The methodology of research for the book will be guided by the Instituto
Museu da Pessoa (The Person Museum Institute), an organization that is
partners with this project: www.museudapessoa.net
.
To participate in the book, we shall find a person from the community
to fulfill the role of living memory, a natural born story-teller to be
him/herself and endorse the understanding of the entire region, its myths
and its peoples' cultures.
Here we have a triple border with the French Guyane and Suriname. That
is also when the crew follows to the Tumucumaque Park, where assorted
indigenous peoples inhabit in one of the largest national parks located
in border areas. This work will be done in accordance with the Tumucumaque
Park's Indigenous Peoples Association.
Leaving Boa Vista (capital of Roraima) by boat and airplane, the crew
will meet with Davi Yanomami at the Demini River Indigenous Land, and
then follow on to the Indigenous Land of Macuxi da Raposa Serra do Sol.
All the indigenous and black communities lands visited will receive wages
for the stay, the food and image rights whose figures are yet to be decided.
Second Trip
The crew will travel along parts of the Western Amazon, that is, Rondônia
and Acre.
The natural border with Bolivia is shown here through the Guaporé
river. It's head is in Mato Grosso (Bra) and stretches along 1,224 km
(760 miles) to flow into the Mamoré river. Mamoré comes
from Bolivia and keeps this name until it flows into the Beni river, which
comes from the Bolivian plateaus to form the Madeira river in Brazil.
All the way from Vila Bela do Mato Grosso (gold-filled region from colonial
time) down to Guajará-Mirim, Guaporé and Mamoré,
they form a water highway that is 1,400 km (870 miles) long.
In Rondônia the extension of the border with Bolivia to be visited
is 1,342 km (830 miles) long. The work with the ghetto communities will
be emphasized in Rondônia and Amapá.
The Rondônia villages located along the Bolivian border are: Guajará-Mirim,
Nova Mamoré, Costa Marques, Alta Floresta do Oeste, São
Francisco do Guaporé, Alto Alegre dos Parecis, Pimenteiras do Oeste
Cabixi.
In Acre we will visit the national park Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor,
located in Acre's extreme west, within the hydrographic bay at the High
Juruá river on the border with Peru, which is regarded as the westernmost
conservation unit in the Amazon, including five towns: Cruzeiro do Sul,
Mâncio Lima, Rodrigues Alves, Porto Walter and Marechal Thaumaturgo.
It's usual for people from that region to visit the town of Pucalpa, where
airplane routes are usual for passengers. While in Acre we shall also
meet with indigenist Meireles, with anthropologist Terri Vale de Aquino
and with Francisco Piãko Ashaninka at the High Envira river in
the town of Feijó. The crew will meet with leader Moisés
Pianko of the Indigenous Land of Kampa of the Amonea river for an interview.
Third Trip
The crew will travel along parts of the Amazon river.
From Manaus, a boat will go up the Solimões river toward the Norhwest
of the Amazon, by the head of the Black River, to meet with the Baniwa
people who live on the border of Brazil with Colombia and Venezuela, in
villages located by the rivers Içana, Cuiari, Aiairi and Cubate,
as well as communities from the High Black/Guainía rivers and urban
centers like São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Santa Isabel and Barcelos
(Amazon). The Kuripako people, who speak a dialect from the Baniwa language,
live in Colombia and Içana (Brazil). Both ethnic groups are related
and skilled at the art of arumã basketry, whose ancient craft was
taught to by the heroes of creation and today are commercialized in Brazil.
Lately, they have been very active in the region's indigenous movement.
This movement equals a cultural multiplex of 22 different ethnic groups
that are strongly articulated in a net of exchange and issues regarding
social organization, material culture and world vision.
According to the movie script, it is necessary to interview the leaders
of the army division 1º BIS - Batalhão de Infantaria da Selva.
Fourth Trip
Here are all the images made in Brasília (capital of Brazil) with the second camera unit. Interviews with people woking with the Government and non-governmental organizations that support the indigenous movement.
Project's Activities Schedule
Click here to see the schedule in .doc format
Investment in the FILM Ecological and Cultural Hallway of the Amazon Borders
Aproved by the National Cinema Agency - ANCINE
SALIC 080064
VALUE OF THE FILM
R$ 1.632.930,00 (one million, six hundred thirty two thousand, nine hundred
and thirty Reais)
About the Filmmaker in the Amazon
Filmmaker and native-Brazilian culture researcher Nicole Algranti first arrived in the Amazon in 1992 after photographing the ECO 1992 for the Earth Summit organization. She lived in Rio Branco (capital of Acre) for eight years working as a photographic journalist, denouncing the traffic of illegal wood for the newspapers "Página 20" and "A Tribuna".
In 1994 she made the film "A Garantia da Sobrevivência" (The Guarantee of Survival) with CNPT- IBAMA and the population of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reservation as partners.
She represented the Amazon in two international exhibits: in 1995 in Peru, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cuzco School of Art, and in 1996 in New York City, during the VII Amazon Week, held at the World Trade Center.
She photographed the delimitation of the Indigenous Land Apurinã de Lábria in Boca do Acre and Pauní in the Amazon for FUNAI.
Contributed with photographs to the book "Enciclopédia da Floresta" (The Forest Encyclopedia) from the Extractive Reservation of the High Juruá, published by Companhia das Letras.
In 2000 she made the film "Ari Hokãta Haka" with the Ashaninka people of the Indigenous Kampa Land of the Amonea river and recorded the CD "Homãpani Ashaninka".
In 2001, she organized the travel of Shamans from the Amazon to the USA, to participate in a meeting with spiritual leaders at the Manitou Foundation, in Colorado, organized by Hanne and Maurice Strong, where she made the film "Colorado".
Nicole Algranti supported the orgaization of projects for the movement Peoples of the Forest Net, formed by individuals from the former Alliance of the Forest Peoples, created by Chico Mendes.
In 2005 she taught a cinema course for indigenous teachers in Acre, followed
by the DVD Noke Haweti and the CDs Shoiti de Cura (Healing Shoiti) and
Txiriti Katukina.
Nicole Algranti with professor Ibâ Kaxinawa, High Jordão
river - Acre: professor and indigenous writer who will participate in
the book/film.
Contact
Taboca Produções Artísticas Limitada
CNPJ 07.139.963/0001-10
Estrada das Magnólias - Lote 19/20
Albuquerque - Teresópolis
Rio de Janeiro
Phone: (55 21) 9291-8917 and (55 21) 8876-0753
tabocafilmes@terra.com.br
taboca@visualnet.com.br
www.tabocafilmes.com.br
Content of the body in the letter from the Former Minister of Environment Marina Silva:
Subject: Institutional Support
Dear Director:
1. The project Cultural and Ecological Hallway of the Amazon Borders,
a film about how the indigenous and the Amazon extractive workers think
and live on the borders of the Amazon has been analyzed by the Ministry
of Environment.
2. The initiative values themes of National Sovereignty interest and contributes
with entertainment to education and knowledge, besides enabling an increased
respect by Brazilians and foreigners for our Rain Forest and its populations,
who are its traditional guardians.
3. Hence, and considering that the producers of the film intend to research
and present the Brazilian Government's view upon the protection of the
Amazon's borders and the maintenance of national sovereignty, the Ministry
of Environment manifets its institutional suppport for the effective implementation
of Your project.
Content of the body in the letter from the Former Minister of Environment Marina Silva's Office:
Subject: Institutional Support
Dear Director:
1. Referring to the solicitation of institutional support by the Ministry
of Environment to the film Cultural and Ecological Hallway of the
Amazon Borders, which has been analyzed by the Amazon Coordination
Department.
2. Because the project is interesting and has already been approved by
the Ministry of Culture and benefited from the Rouanet Bill, and also
intends to research and present the perspective of the Brazilian Government
concerning the protection of the Amazon's borders, the Ministry of Environment
manifests its institutional support to the initiative.