Ayoreo Video Project (2014 -2017)

The Ayoreo Video Project was an experiment in visual anthropology and political advocacy through collaborative video-making with Ayoreo-speaking people. Developed over three years in collaboration with Totobiegosode-Ayoreo leadership and the Brazilian Indigenous media collective Video Nas Aldeias, the project taught Ayoreo to make their own videos. It began with a video workshop in a Totobiegosode village. Our team trained a group of fourteen Ayoreo from five villages, three sub-groups and both sides of the Bolivia/Paraguay border in the basics of digital filmmaking. The project assisted these Ayoreo filmmakers as they conceived, shot and later edited videos on the topics and themes of their choice. The result is a set of four feature length films, meant as stand-alone parts of a collective cinematic experience, that revised previous images of Ayoreo. These included the first three Ayoreo-made videos and an ethnographic film about the project based on workshop footage as well as archival footage I shot in those same communities a decade before.Together, the films allowed Ayoreo to tell their own stories about themselves, to speak back to impoverished representations of their humanity, and to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue in a context of violent dispossession. At the same time, these innovative films continue to open new directions for future reflection, research and advocacy.

Films of the Ayoreo Video Project

Ujirei – Regeneration | 2019 | 54 minutes | Directed by Mateo Sobode Chiqueno | Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources; available here. 

For Ayoreo peoples in the Gran Chaco of northern Paraguay, the future remains unclear. In this experimental film, Ayoreo leader Mateo Sobode Chiqueno visually explores the terms of present-day life on an evangelical mission. The filmmaker creates a visionary cinematic reflection on what it means to affirm Ayoreo life in the aftermath of colonial violence and social upheaval.

As Sobode notes, “Ujirei refers to many things. We Ayoreo know that some plants can grow new versions of themselves after they have been damaged. A whole new tree can emerge from a severed stump or even a piece of wood. Ujirei is the word in our language for that kind of new growth. But it can also refer to something that emerges from a prior version. Everything in this film is a sort of ujirei. Maybe even the film itself is an ujirei too. I made this film so that people in other countries can learn about my people. I want them to know about what happened to us Ayoreo in the past. I want them to think about what kind of futures we are creating from the present. I want people to watch this film and know that we should be respected as human beings.” 

Hailed as “one of the most radical films of an emerging Indigenous cinema,” Ujirei has been widely screened in Latin American Indigenous film festivals. It has won several prizes, including special recognition prizes from the 2018 Festival Internacional de Cine y las Artes Indígena de Wallmapu (FICWALLMAPU), the 2018 Premio Anaconda from CLACPI, and the 2024 Merit in Film Award from the Latin American Studies Association.  

Ore Enominone – Visions | 2017 | 92 minutes | Directed by Ajesua Etacoro & Daijnidi Picanerai

This film is an ethnofictional performance about the creation and inhabitation of a dream world in the forest. Created by the survivors of a deadly 1986 first contact, the Totobiegosode protagonists play a fictional version of themselves and share their unique knowledge of traditional foods, practices and beliefs. Blurring the lines between staged reenactments and serious engagements with present day issues, the film opens new spaces for its creators to reflect on the ruptures of the past and to envision a more inhabitable future.

Yiquijmapiedie – Our Ways | 2017 | 52 minutes | Directed by Chagabi Etacore

In this quiet reflection on making and belonging, the leader of a band that made first contact in 2004 and two others re-create material objects that were once crucial to survival in the pre-contact forest but that have little use in the present and are thus being forgotten. Working together, the three protagonists show the process of digging up a water root, creating wooden storage containers for water, and making bark ropes for a swing game. They provide subtle commentaries on their activities and instruct younger generations about these practices.

The Workshop | 2024 | 70 minutes | Directed by Lucas Bessire, Bernard Belisário and Ernesto de Carvalho

This film uses footage from the video workshop, a drone and archival footage shot by the filmmaker in this place a decade prior to craft a non-linear reflection on the power of visuality to provoke new ways of relating to the world, each other, and alternate versions of ourselves. In visual dialogue with each of the Ayoreo films, The Workshop documents how the video making process unleashed new potentials and dilemmas for all involved, in ways that pose larger questions about collaboration, practice and advocacy.

Ayoreo Video Project Credits

Production by

Ayoreo Video Project in collaboration with Video Nais Aldeias

Producer and Project Coordinator

Lucas Bessire

Editor and Editing Coordinator

Bernard Belisário

Workshop Coordinator

Ernesto de Carvalho

Workshop Advisors

Kamikia Kisêdjé

Rocío Picanere

Cultural Advisor

Chagabi Etacorei

Post-Production

Fábio Costa Menezes