The Filmmakers

Sarah Shamash is a Vancouver based media artist and PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC. Her research centres on Indigenous film and video from Brazil. Her work as an artist, researcher, educator, and programmer can be understood as interconnected and whole, they all revolve around a passion for cinema and its decolonizing potential.

Gavin Andrews is a Canadian documentarian, photographer and visual ethnographer. Gavin lived and worked in the Brazilian Amazon from 2000- 2016, where he founded Castanha Films, an independent production company dedicated to documentary and independent film in the Amazon.

The Films

Tekoha, Som Da Terra  (English: Tekoha, Sound of the Earth) by Rodrigo Arajeju & Valdelice Veron
Our mothers lead the struggle to recover the sacred land of Tekoha Takuara by our way of being and living – nhande reko. They call us Kaiowa because we live in the woods. How will our People live without the forest? And will the forest live without our People? As agribusiness advances upon Indigenous territories, we, Guarani Kaiowá, mourn our genocide in Brazil in our fight to recover our traditional lands in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Indigenous Filmmakers: Mbya Guarani Interview with Patricia Ferreira (Yxapy) by Sarah Shamash
This filmed interview of Patricia Ferreira cuts between footage from the Guarani Cinema Collective’s films and Patricia’s reflections on filmmaking and creating a different type of cinema.

Hello, Hello Amazonia by Gavin Andrews
Synopsis: For nearly 60 years, the radio program “Alo, Alo Amazonia” has been relaying messages between isolated riverine communities in the Brazilian Amazon states of Amapa and Para. The documentary immerses us in the everyday life of the Amazon people, characterized by messages of all kinds – travel arrangements, birthday greetings, messages of love and unpaid debts.

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature closes on February 18, 2018.