The banquets of Yaokwa: potentials and limits of cinema and heritage among the Enawenê-nawê

Abstract

The article examines the use of cinema in non-institutional and institutional heritage processes,
of the Yaokwa ritual from the Enawenê-nawê people at two different historical moments using
statements from indigenous filmmakers and anthropologists, film analysis and the Amerindian
bibliography. The works were produced by the project “Vídeo nas Aldeias” which, since the
1980s, has been developing collaborative work with indigenous communities in the audiovisual
area. The first documentary was made in the context of internal reflection about the relationship
to be established with colonial society. The second film was produced fifteen years later as part of
the institutional heritage process of the Yaokwa ritual that aimed to alert to the environmental
challenges that many capitalist enterprises posed to the maintenance of the Enawenê-nawê way
of life.