From Testimony to the Cinema of Action in the Vídeo nas Aldeias Project

This paper reflects on the relationships established between the audio-moving image and Indigenous communities in Brazil, from the arrival and appropriation of video technologies to the development of documentary strategies. It is about expanding the ways of seeing and narrating with Indigenous people, engaging in a radical movement of image production aimed at allowing these subjects, traditionally objects of alterity, to ally themselves with filmmakers and develop their own images resulting in a cinema of action. Brazilian indigenous cinema is thus constituted as a complex field, mainly promoted by the ‘Vídeo nas Aldeias’ (Video in the Villages VNA) project. This paper explores the conceptual aspects involved in these practices, contextualizing their development, and focusing on its testimonial nature, considered as one of the strong axes of its execution.

Keywords: Brazilian documentary ; cinema of action ; documentary testimony ; indigenous cinema ; Video nas Aldeias (VNA) ; Vincent Carelli