Amazonian film tells the story of a pajé’s journey in search of spirituality and connection with the beings of the forest

Mencius Melo – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The film “Kumarú: cura, força e resistência”, (‘Kumarú: healing, strength and resistance‘ in english) by director João Albuquerque, with co-direction by Yuri Rodrigues, will arrive at YouTube, on the “Enfrente” channel, on December 1st. The script is by João Albuquerque, Yuri Rodrigues and Naldinho Kumaruara. The film is signed by the production company Dzawi Filmes. The work is a short film shot in the Kumaruara indigenous territory, in the Muruary village, region of the lower Tapajós, in the Tapajós Arapiuns extractive reserve, in Pará.

In an interview to CENARIUM, the director João Albuquerque and the co-director Yuri Rodrigues, from Dzawi Filmes, commented on the work. According to Yuri, the film is a cinematographic reflection. “History, in the Amazon, is marked by a lot of violence and silencing that reflects even today. And the symbolic erasing of our identities, cultures and, mainly, spirituality”, said the scriptwriter.

By understanding this historical, geographical and political context, he explains the option for the central figure of the short film: “To talk about the pajé or the pajelança is to talk about the spiritual leaders of our region, is to break with the silencing, discrimination and prejudice built around the figure of the pajé. It is also allowing the narrative to be played out and told by us”, explained Yuri Rodrigues.

Said nature

Shot in three days, “Kumarú is the result of the talent and strength of its producers, after all, making films in the Amazon requires an immense dose of optimism. According to director João Albuquerque, nature dictates the time. “On the set of Kumarú, the distances were great, so much so that we didn’t have enough electricity to charge all the equipment at once, as the house we stayed in had only one solar panel and we re-scheduled the charging of the equipment during the days”, he revealed.

In addition to logistical difficulties, the Amazon also reserves its oscillating climatic mood, which can surprise even the most experienced audiovisual producers. “Even with the schedule set up, we know that Mother Nature is unpredictable. Some outdoor scenes had to be delayed because of very heavy rains. We need to be patient, respect the time and wait for the right moment to continue recording”, he summed up.

Despite the difficulties, João reveals that the team’s unity made the difference. “We had eight people involved in the production, each one taking on a different function, including the director, executive producer, director of photography, communications, direct sound, still photography, press office and production assistant. In the end, everyone helped each other and each one did a bit of everything on the set. Besides this, we had the help of the family of our protagonist, who were together, helping in the production”, he said.

The spiritual journey

For João Albuquerque, the film reflects the dilemmas of the soul of a man in search of his identity, his ancestry. “The process of understanding spirituality was the path that Naldinho (a shaman) had to follow to recognize that he had the gift of shamanism and that this responsibility of healing and caring for people had to be increasingly understood by him and his relatives to defend their territory”, observed the director.

According to the director of the short film, more than discovering oneself, the experience of the shaman Naldinho Kumaruara has the function of turning on the lights of preservation and the resistance of a people. “Being a healing leader requires emotional and moral balance, it is to be in connection with nature and with the enchanted ones, and all this brings the strengthening of the spirit, where people and the indigenous movement gain strength to go on fighting”, highlighted João Albuquerque.

But it was not only the shaman Naldinho Kumaruara who made reflections. The experience gave the producers insights to continue following the paths of the seventh art. “Art gives us great artistic freedom, and cinema is no different. It is up to each person to be touched by the stories of our people and show all the feelings that involve nature and our daily lives. The eye of someone from the inside, of someone who lives the Amazon, will always be more precise and real”, he added.

Protagonism and narrative

Kumarú is Dzawi’s first production, but the plans are to expand. “Our region has a very large ethnic and cultural diversity, for this reason, we still have much to tell. We intend to continue making records through themes related to the people of the region. Black people, peripheral people and traditional peoples, because they are the ones who, for a long time, have been silenced and made invisible. Cinema is a fighting tool, a weapon that can make these peoples protagonists of their stories”, João Albuquerque summed up.

“Our fight is to build a cinema that distances itself from stereotypes and the narrative told about us, without us. Our intention is to talk about the Amazon without romanticism and for the discourse not to be restricted to the forest and the river, but to show that here there are also people who preserve this great biome and maintain it. Without us, the Amazon would probably have already been extinguished in the midst of this capitalist dynamic that sees our region only as a place for plundering and exploitation”, concluded Yuri Rodrigues.

Dzawi Filmes

Dzawi Films is an independent audiovisual and cultural production company, created in 2020 by the producers Yuri Rodrigues and João Albuquerque, in the city of Santarém-PA. The action of the production company is organized through audiovisual productions that seek the strengthening of Amazonian narratives starred by the eyes of those who have always been invisible, such as those who are in traditional territories and the outskirts of the cities, among them, the black population, indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional populations.

Dzawi Films has in its creation the objective of democratizing cinema in the peripheries of the Amazon and to contribute to the emancipation from popular communication as a tool for struggle and territorial defense in the lower Tapajós region. In its productions, the production company always seeks to compose the team, mostly by people from Santarém and the Northern Region, respecting gender equality and that they are black and indigenous people.