Event Description
When she was just six months old, filmmaker Sueli Maxakali’s father, Luis Kaiowá, was taken away from his Tikmũ’ũn family in Minas Gerais, Brazil, by the administrators of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and relocated to the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the traditional lands of the Kaiowá people that he had left behind years earlier. Separated by more than forty years and one thousand miles, Maxakali and her partner document her search for her father, while highlighting the struggles of the Indigenous peoples of Brazil to maintain their traditions and autonomy.
A film discussion will be joined by Directors Sueli Maxakali, Isael Maxakali, and Roberto Romero, and Natalia Brizuela, the Class of 1930 Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies and a Professor in the Departments of Film & Media and Spanish & Portuguese at UC Berkeley.
Speakers
Sueli Maxakali is president of the Maxakali Association of Aldeia Verde. As a photographer, she participated in the following projects: Hitupmã’ax/Curar (Faculdade de Letras da UFMG e Literaterras, 2009), a bilingual book dedicated to health and healing practices from the perspective of the Tikumũ’ũn (Maxakali); Koxuk Xop Imagem (Beco do Azougue Editorial, 2009), with photographs of the Maxakali women about the rituals and daily life of Aldeia Verde; and Cantobrilho Tikumu’un: On the Edge of the Fertile Country (2010), an exhibition project and book on Tikumu estétican aesthetics. She co-directed the films Yãmiyhex: women-spirits (2019), Nuhu yãgmu yõg hãm: This Land is Ours (2020) and, more recently, the short film Payexop yãy tu nunãhã: Encontro de Pajés (2021). Her films Yãmiyhex and Nuhu yãgmu yõg hãm were awarded in 2019 and 2020 by the Tiradentes Film Festival, one of the main windows of Brazilian contemporary cinema across the country. She was a professor of the Transversal Training Program in Traditional Knowledge at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG, Federal University of Minas Gerais), in 2016, 2017, and 2019. She is currently completing her studies in the Formação Intercultural para Educadores Indígenas (FIEI, Intercultural Training for Indigenous Educators) course at the Faculty of Education of UFMG.
Roberto Rivera holds a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He holds a master's and a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Romero is a member of the Center for Symmetrical Anthropology (NAnSi) and the Laboratory of Ethnology and Ethnographic Film (LEFE). He has been researching the Tikm'n (Maxakali) people since 2010. He co-directed the documentary " Nũhũ Yãg Mũ Yõg Hãm: Essa Terra É Nossa!" (2020, 71 min) and was an assistant director on the film "Yãmiyhex: As Mulheres-Espirito" (Sueli Maxakali and Isael Maxakali, 2019).
Natalia Brizuela is the Class of 1930 Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies and a Professor in the Departments of Film & Media and Spanish & Portuguese at UC Berkeley.
Co-sponsorship
Hosted by Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Co-sponsored by CLACS and the Arts Research Center.