Event Description
Seven diverse films feature archival footage and audio recordings, public testimony and personal memories. Metamorphosis, an episode from the Flechas Selvagem series by Ailton Krenak and Anna Dantes, brings together the work of Indigenous leaders, shamans, scientists, and artists. Mojave American poet Natalie Diaz’s first film features her poem “The First Water Is the Body,” which recalls that we all come from water, while cell phone recordings by Wichí elder Caístulo translate messages from trees that have survived agribusiness’s onslaught. Alanis Obomsawin’s Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair pays tribute to the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and includes painful testimony from Indigenous students of Canada’s residential school system. Sebastián Calfuqueo’s Mapu kufüll, Patricia Ferreira Pará Yxapy’s Letter for Verá, from Jurina, and Sky Hopinka’s recent Kicking the Clouds powerfully look to family and ancestors for strength and guidance.
Films in this screening
Metamorphosis(Metamorfose) Ailton Krenak, Anna Dantes, Brazil, 2021
River Lines Natalie Diaz, United States, 2021
Mapu kufüll(Mariscos de tierra, Mushrooms) Sebastián Calfuqueo, Chile, 2020
My Eternal Life Remains Here(Mi vida eterna permanece aquí) Guido Yannitto, Caístulo (Juan de Dios López), Andrei Fernández, Argentina, 2021
Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 2021
Letter for Verá, from Jurina—Pindó Poty (Carta para Verá, de Jurina—Pindó Poty) Patricia Ferreira Pará Yxapy, Brazil, 2017
Kicking the Clouds Sky Hopinka, United States, 2021
Cosponsors
Presented by the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive and cosponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies.