(Re) Exist in the Present, Imagine the Future
Join us for a day of Indigenous cinema featuring films, conversations with filmmakers and special guests, and a reception.
(Re) Exist in the Present, Imagine the Future is a multidisciplinary curatorial initiative dedicated to Indigenous cinemas from Brazil and the Americas, creating space for Indigenous filmmakers to share their work, perspectives, and visions while challenging colonial frameworks of representation.
Curated by Professor Fernanda Roth Faya (Film Department) and taking place at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, this 3rd edition presents screenings and conversations foregrounding Indigenous authorship and visual sovereignty while opening discussions around land, memory, cultural continuity, identity, resistance, language, environmental justice, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism.
Overview
Date/Time: October 28, 2:30–8:30 p.m.
Location: Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema Screening Room. 25 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205. Shuttle buses will depart from Brooklyn College’s Main Campus at 1:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to facilitate transportation to Feirstein. Register for shuttle bus here.
2:30–5:30 p.m., Feature Film Screening + Discussion
A transformação de Canuto – Canuto’s Transformation
2023 | 120 min | Guarany Mbya
Dir. Ariel Ortega and Ernesto Carvalho
In a small Mbya-Guarani community between Brazil and Argentina, everyone knows the name Canuto: a man who many years ago suffered the dreaded transformation into a Jaguar, and then died tragically. Now, a film is being made to tell his story. Why did this happen to him? But more importantly: who in the village should play his role?
Created in, with, and by the Mbyá-Guarani community alongside the renowned Indigenous media collective Video nas Aldeias, and with filmmakers and scriptwriters Ariel Ortega, Patricia Ferreira, and Ernesto de Carvalho, the film offers a rare look into Indigenous cinema and community-led storytelling.
Roundtable with:
- Ernesto Carvalho (guest film director)
- Patricia Ferreira (guest film director)
- Fabio Andrade (film scholar, Vassar)
5:30 p.m. Reception with Refreshments
6:30–8:30 p.m. Short Films Screening + Discussion
Desterro Guarani – Guarani Exile
2011 | 38 min | Guarani Mbya
Dir. Patrícia Ferreira (Pará Yxapy), Ariel Ortega, Ernesto de Carvalho, Vincent Carelli
Ariel Ortega reflects on the historical process of contact between the Mbya-Guarani and European colonizers, seeking to understand how his people were dispossessed of their ancestral lands.
Una Semilla de Ara Pyau
2021 | 24 min | Guarani Mbya
Dir. Cine Mbya Guarani Ara Pyau Collective
A documentary portraying Mbyá life, ancestral knowledge, and the struggle for land, while reclaiming Indigenous perspectives and storytelling from the outside gaze.
New York, Just Another City
2019 | Excerpt
Dir. André Lopes and Joana Brandão
A young Indigenous leader and audiovisual director, Patrícia Ferreira creates documentaries with her Guarani Mbya community. Her work has been presented internationally, including at New York’s Margaret Mead Film Festival, where she reflected on the contrasts between Guarani and non-Indigenous ways of life.
Roundtable with:
- Patricia Ferreira (guest film director)
- Ernesto Carvalho (guest film director)
- Amalia Cordova (indepepndent curator)
- Dijana Jelaka (moderator)
