Pakyi, Tamandua & Jair of FUNAI
Los Angeles based Cinema Libre Studio has acquired “Piripkura”, a Brazilian documentary about uncontacted people of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, which had qualified for Best Documentary category at the 91st Academy Awards. The film premiered at Belgium’s 2018 Docville International Documentary Film Festival earning the Jury Award for Best International Documentary and was also recognized by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) with the Amsterdam Human Rights Award. Following limited screenings in New York and Los Angeles, the film is now on DVD & ON DEMAND and will screen in Los Angeles on February 28 as part of the Cinema Libre Studio/LA Weekly – “Independent Visions” Monthly Film Screening Series.
Directed by Mariana Oliva, Renata Terra and Bruno Jorge, the documentary follows Jair Candor, a coordinator with FUNAI (the National Indian Foundation), the Brazilian government body that establishes and carries out policies relating to indigenous peoples, as he searches for the last two remaining tribe members of the Piripkura people.
According to Survival International, Brazil’s Amazon is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere in the world. There are thought to be at least 100 isolated groups in this rainforest, according to the government’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI.
The documentary tell the story of the last two surviving members of the Piripkura people, a nomadic tribe in the Mato Grasso region of Brazil, struggle to maintain their indigenous way of life amidst the region’s massive deforestation. Living deep in the rain forest, Pakyî and Tamandua live off the land relying on a machete, an ax, and a torch lit in 1998.
Jair Candor, a coordinator with the Brazilian Foundation for Indigenous People, made contact in 1989 and arranged for protected status which must be renewed every two years. As time runs short, Candor and the camera team trek deep into the uninhabited region to find traces of the men as the systemic violence used against indigenous Amazon people is revealed.
“Piripkura” was produced by Brazil’s Zeza Filmes with associate producers Marina Farinha Filmes and Grifa Filmes. Philippe Diaz, Chairman of Cinema Libre Studio, negotiated the deal with Joao Worcman of Aggregator Media in Florida. To know more: www.PiripkuraMovie.com | www.facebook.com/PiripkuraMovie
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