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The Spirit of TV

Vincent Carelli

1990 00:18:00 BrazilEnglishColorMono4:3Video
Tags:
Indigenous, Television

Description

Beginning with the arrival by canoe of a TV and VCR in their village, The Spirit of TV documents the Waiãpi people’s first encounter with TV images of themselves and others. They view a tape from their chief’s first trip to Brasilia to speak to the government, news broadcasts, and videos of other Brazilian native peoples, and record a session directed by Chief Waiwai for villages in his territory. The tape translates the reactions of individual Waiãpi to the power of images, the diversity of native peoples, and their common struggles with federal agents, gold miners, trappers, and loggers.

Directed by Vincent Carelli.

In Waiãpi with English subtitles.

About Vincent Carelli

Vincent Carelli is a video producer with the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This group works to bring an understanding of the power of TV technology to indigenous peoples as an empowering tool in their fight to preserve their lands and ways of life. The Video in the Villages Project is an ongoing series that grew out of the frustrating experiences the native Brazilian Waiãpi had with ethnographic film and video shoots in their villages. Initiated in 1985, the project has had a profound effect on native image and self image, inter-tribal relations, and relations with white institutions. Members of several native groups learn about video technology and participate in the production and editing of the videotapes.