Among the more than 60 films from 19 Brazilian states that will be screened at the festival, there are works that address climate issues.
By Editorial, with
Abr
– from Cuiabá
With a festival that started in 1993, the capital of Mato Grosso will have the 20th edition of the Cuiabá Film and Video Festival (Cinemato) this week, from July 14 to 20.
This year, the theme will be
Decolonizing the Amazon – A tribute to filmmaker Silvino Santos
,
known as the “jungle filmmaker,” for his pioneering contribution to the audiovisual recording of the Amazon in the 20th century. The film, made by him in the 1920s, is
Amazonas, the largest river in the world
open the festival.
Twenty-one films, six feature-length and 15 short national films, were selected to compete for the Coxiponé Trophy. The award was inspired by the Bororo ethnicity, which lived along the banks of the Coxipó River and is a symbol of cultural resistance in Mato Grosso. Among the criteria adopted by the event’s curators are aesthetic and narrative diversity, protagonism of historically invisible groups, and connections with the theme of decolonial Amazon.
The films in the competitive program are:
•
Mawé
, by Jimmy Christian (AM), fiction that tells the conflict of a young indigenous woman between the rituals of her village and urban life;
•
Red Stone
, by Cassemiro Vitorino and Ilka Goldschmidt (SC), a documentary that follows communities affected by megaprojects in the south of the country;
•
Kopenawa: Dreaming the Forest Earth
, by Marco Altberg and Tainá de Luccas (RJ), which dives into the Yanomami cosmological thought;
•
The Silence of Oysters
, by Marcos Pimentel (MG), a sensory essay on grief and the environment;
•
Quintet Concerto
, by Juraci Júnior (RO), which transforms music into an instrument of resistance and belonging;
• Serra das Almas
, by Lírio Ferreira (PE), who revisits the sertaneja poetry in a work of fiction.
Eurocentric
For the director of Cinemato, Luis Borges, the selection made this year is of extreme importance.
– The theme of this year, in fact, is not meant only for filmmakers or films made in the Amazon. It is to bring films that promote a deconstruction of this Eurocentric view we have of our country, of the people of this country – evaluated.
Among the more than 60 films from 19 Brazilian states that will be screened at the festival, there are works that address climate issues, such as the one from Minas Gerais
O Silence of Oysters
, about the dam rupture in Brumadinho, in 2019.
Projects
For Luis Borges, film festivals are the showcases of films that do not get distribution in cinemas, and Cinemato also brings the importance of training professionals to work in the film industry in Mato Grosso.
— With the offices that were held during the festival, a workforce began to be prepared in order to produce the films, the new projects, and the contemporary projects that started to emerge, encouraged by the festival’s realization. At that time, the exhibition circuit of Cuiabá had only one cinema hall, highlights Borges.
For the director, Cinemato plays an important role as a showcase and screen for national cinema, since, even with the screen quota and laws created to protect the sector, there is still no enforcement in the region. Through the festival, Brazilian cinema finds its audience in Mato Grosso.
Dira Paes
The closing ceremony, scheduled for July 20, will have Dira Paes, who returns to the festival where she received her first Best Actress award in 1996 for
Corisco & Dadá
. The artist will personally deliver the
Prêmio Dira Paes
, which honors women who have distinguished themselves in the audiovisual field and in socio-environmental causes.
— For me, it’s an honor to be part of a festival that I saw being born in its first edition. It’s a festival with its own DNA, which is related to its region, its contents, its demands, its reflections, about the power of this biome where it takes place. I feel proud to personally present an award with my name — said the actress.
Rookie as a director in
Pasárgada
, last year, Dira Paes believes that Brazilian cinema is going through a very special moment and a historical year, with
Oscar for Best International Feature Film
for
Still Here
.
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