Brazilian Documentary and Ethnographic Films

Both groups of indi­ge­neous brasil­ians, the Waiãpi and the Zo’e, belong to the Tupi lan­guage family and share quite a bit of their tra­di­tions. But while the Waiãpi have been … read more

CONFIDENCES FROM THE RIVER OF DEATH is an inti­mate doc­u­men­tary, which attempts to ana­lyze the rela­tion­ship of people and envi­ron­ment, work and his­to­ry through the oral his­to­ry, passed on from … read more

Intro­duc­ing the video at the Waiapi in the con­text of the »Video in the Vil­lages« project. 

Doc­u­men­tary on the life and work of French ethno­g­ra­ph­er and fotog­ra­ph­er Pierre Verger (1902, Paris/France – 1996, Sal­vador de Bahia/Brazil) whose stud­ies revealed the rec­i­p­ro­cal cul­tur­al influ­ences between Brazil and the region of Benin and Nige­ria in Africa: the cul­tur­al tra­di­tions brought from Africa to Brazil by the black slaves but also, and here the orig­i­nal­i­ty of his work, the Brazil­ian influ­ences in Africa brought back by former slaves who reteurned to the continent.

Nar­rat­ed and pre­sent­ed by Gilber­to Gil (Brazil’s fore­most African-brazil­ian music artist) the doc­u­men­tary was shot in loca­tions in Repub­lic of Benin, Paris, Sal­vador de Bahia and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It includes Pierre Verger’s last inter­view given to Gilber­to Gil one day before his death.