Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses how a research project based on cinema workshops with the indigenous Matis was abandoned to join the political protest of the neighboring indigenous Kanamari leading to the occupation of the DSEI-VJ in the Brazilian Amazon

Paper long abstract:

The paper will address the ethical challenges, its consequences, and filmmaking decisions when a visual ethnographic research project based on cinema workshops in the Brazilian Amazon was abandoned to join a political protest to occupy the city of Atalaia do Norte’s Special Indigenous Sanitary District of the Vale do Javari (DSEI-VJ). It counts on three moments: the first is the critique posed by the indigenous Matis interlocutors as to their position as ethnographic subjects and their rejection of anthropological endeavors during the cinema workshops. Secondly, the political protests organized by the neighboring Kanamari, which emerged in response to governmental negligence regarding indigenous healthcare assistance. This movement led to the occupation of DSEI-VJ for 19 days, which was under attempts of being undermined by local indigenous groups trying to remain in the local political arena and by the arrival of State’s representatives from Brasilia. Finally, the paper will discuss the role of the filmmakers, including the Kanamari and Matis collaborators, that of the camera and that of editing until the completion and release of a collaborative triptych documentary film. The juxtaposition of these three situations allows for reflections to be made about the situated politics of anthropology and that of visual ethnography when facing unexpected situations, as when the interlocutors reject to be of ‘anthropological interest’ or the rise of interethnic conflict in a situation of struggle for the improvement of a communality such as access to basic healthcare assistance.