Indigenous cinema, ethnic transfiguration of cinema

Abstract

This essay starts from the premise that the “ethnic transfiguration” advocated by Darcy Ribeiro can be reused in a parodic way to think about something that Darcy himself did not foresee: Indigenous cinema. With this, I intend to highlight the very unique aspect of this set of films and pose a fundamental question: starting from the debate around the transformational history advocated by the category “ethnic transfiguration”, how to think about the apparent contradiction and the renewing force of the cinema starring native peoples? I intend to expose this difference here through the analysis of two films: Ava Yvy Vera — Terra do Povo do Raio (2016), by the Kaiowa collective formed by Genito Gomes, Valmir Gonçalves Cabreira, Johnaton Gomes, Joilson Brites, Johnn Nara Gomes, Sarah Brites, Dulcídio Gomes and Edna Ximenes; and Yãy tu nũnãhã payexop: Encontro de Pajés (2021), by Sueli Maxakali. I advance my hypothesis here: it is a form of difference that is invented and produced by the consistent inconstancy of the savage soul: from interested assimilation to simultaneous contempt for the reification of the assimilated thing and its subsequent reuse, selective, negotiated, resignified.