• Yãmĩyhex, The Woman-Spirit
  • Yãmĩyhex, The Woman-Spirit
  • We Are Living Borders
  • Alejandro Benites, Pindó Poty (Argentina)—Jeguatá

Yãmĩyhex, The Woman-Spirit

(Yãmĩyhex as mulheres-espírito)

Prerecorded Conversation

  • Carolina Canguçu is an assistant director of Yãmĩyhex, The Woman-Spirit.

  • Roberto Romero is an assistant director of Yãmĩyhex, The Woman-Spirit.

  • Natalia Brizuela is the Class of 1930 Chair of the Center for Latin American Studies and a professor in the Departments of Film & Media and Spanish & Portuguese at UC Berkeley.

  • In Person

    Gustavo Caboco is an artist from the Wapichana people in Brazil. 

Indigenous filmmakers Sueli Maxakali and Isael Maxakali use film to preserve the memories, experiences, rituals, and struggles of their people—confirming an existence denied by the Brazilian government. Long ago, in an act of rebellion and revenge, the Tikmũ’ũn women disappeared into the water, leaving only one girl. These spirit women, the yãmĩyhex, visit Aldeia Verde (Minas Gerais) for several months, returning again and again as they miss their families. In Yãmĩyhex, The Woman-Spirit, villagers enact this history, followed by documentation of the preparations, feasts, and dances that mark the spirits leaving once more. As in their This Land Is Our Land!, screened at BAMPFA last year, the Maxakali are concerned with both the physical and the mythological. It is “a film haunted by a myth, inhabited by the careful construction of rituals and celebration, moved by the force of a spiritual bond with every manifestation of life” (Sheffield DocFest).

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Portuguese
  • Maxakali
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 77 mins
Source
  • Sueli Maxakali
  • Isael Maxakali
  • Roberto Romero
  • Carolina Canguçu
Additional Info
  • Assisted by Carolina Canguçu, Roberto Romero.
Preceded By

We Are Living Borders

Gustavo Caboco, Roseane Cadete, Brazil, 2022

We Are Living Borders examines the history of the Blood Beach Revolt, which took place in Roraima, in the Brazilian Amazon, in 1790, when Indigenous people who rebelled against the Portuguese occupation of their lands were massacred.

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Portuguese
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 11 mins
source
  • Gustavo Caboco
source
  • Roseane Cadete

Alejandro Benites, Pindó Poty (Argentina)—Jeguatá

Patricia Ferreira Pará Yxapy, Brazil, 2017

Benites talks about the importance of walking and the land to the Nhanderu people. This is a fragment from Jeguatá: Travel Notebook (Jeguatá: Caderno de viagem) by Ana Carvalho, Ariel Kuaray Ortega, Fernando Ancil, and Patricia Yxapy; Rumos Itaú Cultural (2016–17).

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Guaraní
  • with English and Portuguese subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 8 mins
source
  • Patricia Ferreira Pará Yxapy