Skip to main content

Jane Moraita (Our Celebrations)

Vincent Carelli

1995 00:32:00 BrazilEnglishColor

Description

The Waiãpi videomaker Kasiripinã decides to show white people the documentation he did on his people in Amapo. He presents and comments on three celebrations that represent episodes of the myth-cycle of the creation of the universe. The theme of the Tamoko celebration is war, and it presents the death of a cannibal monster. In the second celebration, Pikyry, the dancers act out the spawning of fish. The last is the Turé, the dance of the flutes, in which the Waiãpi reenact the death of the tapir in honor of the creator, Janejar.

Directed by Kasiripinã Waiãpi.

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.