Da cena do contato ao inacabamento da história : Os últimos isolados (1967-1999), Corumbiara (1986-2009) e Os Arara (1980-)

Abstract

There are currently in Brazil 107 known cases of isolated indigenous people. The situation concerning the first contact between settlers and indigenous people is systematically updated since the arrival of the first settlers in 1500. From the fronts of colonial occupation until the indigenous policies undertaken by the government, what is at stake with this controversial intercultural clash is a prolific production of meanings both to the national society and to the indigenous population that managed to survive and now looks for alternatives to get back on its feet. The Last of the Hiding Tribes (Adrian Cowell, 1967-1999), Corumbiara (Vincent Carelli,1985-2009), and Os Arara (Andrea Tonacci, 1980-) are all documentaries with isolated indigenous people produced in Brazil. Their directors engaged themselves into the challenge of filming firstcontact situations for long periods of time. I want to compare how these directors film and, later on, edit the contact situation, always in relation with the indigenous people. The intense scene of the contact will be described on the basis of the notion of controlled equivocation (Viveiros de Castro, 2004) and of the observation of the emergence of a new regime of touch (Serres, 2010) and listening (Tugny, 2011) that which now operate in association with the visible. In montage, as they retake the images shot in the past, the filmmakers narratively explicit the processuality of their works - which will be drawn from the film - process concept (Xavier, 2012 [1986] 2012 [1993] and 2008; Brasil, 2008; and Mesquita, 2011 and 2014) - in formulating different terms the original take insofar as it concerns the documentary relationship (Comolli, 2008) in order to investigate the history (its disasters and its openings).