Video in Villages 3

8/2/2019 Video in Villages 3

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Video in the Villages

A window to Brazil

Video in the Villages is a NGO that operates in the communication areathrough the implantation and development of an audio-visual medium together

with indigenous communities. Its objective is to make video an instrument of

expression of Indigenous identity, reflecting their vision about themselves and

the world. The appropriation of this specific language has a double meaning:

on one side, it rescues and reevaluates their cultural inheritance and, on the

other side, it combats the stereotyped ideas and ignorance of society in

relation to indigenous peoples.

From this perspective surges a central theme of indigenous films: the

rereading of History from their own point of view, the affirmation of theiridentity and of their differences.

The operation of Video in the Villages divides itself into three areas:

apprenticeship, production and distribution extending to diverse regions of

Brazil, especially the Amazon, where the biggest indigenous population is

concentrated.

APPRENTICESHIP

The apprenticeship of indigenous video makers constitutes the central axis ofthe entitys work and is seen as a long-term evolutionary process. The entitys

priority is to offer quality training because the credibility and recognition of

the indigenous production depends on it. The methodology of capability

elapses from this reflection: the continuous training is strengthened through

apprenticeship workshops.

The workshops are set up in indigenous villages, areas in which they develop

their research, choose their themes and characters, and realize their

productions.The apprenticeship is broken up into four stages: screenplay writing, recording

the images, critical analysis of the recorded material and editing. This whole

process is accompanied by discussions about the content of the material, its

technical quality, as well as reflections about its treatment.

The interactive dynamics of the workshop make the community get involved

in all the stages of this process. It does not restrict itself to an object of


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register, but contributes in the choice of themes and characters, criticism ofapproach and influences substantially in the final result of the work.

In the beginning of every introductory workshop set up in the village, each

student draws up a project that he intends to realize and then its accompanied

and supported by the Video in the Villages production core.

PRODUCTION

The production, finalization and distribution of videos are realized at the

headquarters of Video in the villages. It provides the necessary infrastructure

to produce videos for students who are more advanced in their stages of

apprenticeship. This production core permits the viability of their projects,

from a financial, technical and content point of view. Once the filming is

concluded, the video maker comes to the headquarters to edit his materialunder the guidance of an editor.This essential stage of apprenticeship distinguishes itself as an editing

workshop, providing a privileged moment of reflection about the content, as

well as the treatment of its theme.

They become professionals, adopting the language of motion pictures andarticulating the image syntax. Summing it up, they make films about their

reality, not only for their people, but also for an open public, unfamiliar with

their particularities.

The more experience they accumulate, the more self-confidence they acquire

and this process of apprenticeship, in the long run, will culminate in

graduation of a group of free-lance video makers and multipliers of this know-

how.

Parallel to the students production, the coordination team at Video in the

Villages continues producing videos about various themes: rituals, traditional

narrative fiction, denunciations, experimental projects, such as educational

videos in partnership with governmental organs: Aids prevention campaigns

in indigenous areas and the series Indians in Brazil intended to introduce the

indigenous theme in Brazilian schools.

DISTRIBUTION AND DIFFUSION

Since the beginning of its creation, Video in the Villages has promoted the

interchange of videos among the communities with which it works. Along theyears, the number of communities that have video cassette players has


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increased considerably in the country, making us enlarge and diversify thedistribution network. In addition to indigenous communities we have also

received solicitations from indigenous associations and indigenous NGOs.

Museums, cultural centers, schools and universities have also acquired

collections for cultural and educational use.

At the same time that the Latin American interchange has been expanding, we

have produced a Spanish version of the series for distribution in indigenous

communities in Latin America.

We have also produced an integral English version of the series for

international diffusion in festivals, museums and universities.

The visibility caused by this distribution and the awards of various prizes

opened space for diffusion of the series in public networks and commercial

television in Brazil and throughout the world.

Currently, Video in the Villages has a collection of 38 titles, with versions inthree languages (Portuguese, Spanish and English).In Brazil, the Ministry of Education is in charge of distributing ten thousand

copies of the series Indians in Brazil to the public school system, as well as

an annual diffusion by satellite of TV Escola to a network of fifty thousand

schools.

What innovations have indigenous films brought us?

The language, style and focus of the documentaries realized by Indigenous

peoples follows a line developed by the initial series of the project: the Indian

as a protagonist and the act of filming interacting with the event. But

currently, the relationship is different and, therefore, the produced result is

also different. Now its no longer the director or anthropologist that directs or

orientates, its a conversation between one Indian and another, in a movement

of interaction with his community. This relationship brings to the film a

certain intimacy, which only they can produce. In films such as During the

rainy season, fruit of a workshop from the Ashaninka do rio Amnia village,

is a clear cut example of this new work methodology. Its not us that give the

word to the Indian anymore, its they who generate the word from theircommunity, their tradition and articulations of their narratives.

The four documentaries produced this way in the last three years, already

constitute a set of very original films, an indigenous auto-ethnography thats

full of life and grace.


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The current goal of the project is to form a first generation of indigenousdocumentary film makers. These will be the seeds of other vocations, until

they can occupy their own space on Public Brazilian television.

The History

In the beginning, the insertion of video in indigenous communities was

experimental, with a few groups committed to rescuing their political

autonomy and their cultural patrimony. Supplied with a VHS camera, a

monitor and a set of documentaries about the indigenous reality from different

regions of the country, the team from Video in the Villages offered the Indians

the opportunity to see themselves and also see the other Indians. This

procedure profoundly affected the self-esteem of these peoples, generating

true collective catharsis in which they reenacted abandoned rituals,

reactivating their collective memories.If on one side video caught the attention of youth that was eager formodernity, on the other side, it fascinated the more traditional leaderships

even more, who immediately realized the potential of this device, as a

resonant speaker of its cultural resistance discussion.

The project went on, year after year, repeating this experience in different

communities, producing an archive of images to be shared with other groups

and producing a series of documentaries about the process triggered off by

video. These documentaries laid the foundation of the project, in proportion to

showing the potential financiers of Video in the Villages the true dimension of

its importance.

After a few years, the project could count on a considerable archive of images,

a series of videos that earned disclosure and international recognition, a

network of video collections distributed in various communities, and in every

one of them, youth supplied with cameras in the service of leaderships

committed to maintaining their cultural memory. In addition to the exchange

of video tapes, the project has also generated encounters of groups with

cultural affinities with views to rediscover and recover lost cultural traits.

An Indigenous Program

In 1995/96, An Indigenous Program was producedby Video in the Villages

together with TV Universidade de Mato Grosso. A unique experience, whichpointed a way to be followed and the right to be claimed. The challenge was to


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transform the realization of An indigenous Program into a school ofjournalism and production for Indians of different ethnic groups of that state.

In addition to being performers, they were also screenplay writers, producers

and masters of ceremonies of a television program, about themselves.

The four programs were broadcast not only in Mato Grosso state, but also on

the National Television Network TVE and Educational TV of Rio de Janeiro.

If, on one side, this original experience showed the omission of information

about the indigenous reality existent on Brazilian television, on the other side,

it revealed that there was still a long road to be paved, in order for indigenous

peoples to have their place in the media.

It was from this evaluation that we designed a new work perspective for Video

in the Villages: to really occupy places on the electronic media, it would be

necessary to invest in a consistent and long term way in the apprenticeship ofindigenous video makers.

From 1997, the project began to invest in training indigenous people in a more

systematic way, through village workshops and editing workshops at our

headquarters.

In 2000, Video in the Villages, which before was part of the Indigenous Work

Center (CTI), became an independent non governmental organization. It was

the natural expansion movement of the project, which currently collaborates

with a much bigger number of indigenous NGOs and associations. It

became necessary to create a new collective that represents a focus on the

current work, an organization that specifically treats the question of

communication and, above all, the training of indigenous documentary film

makers. This change reflects the orientation of the new work.

Documents

Video in Villages 3