Maniok reibe ich dir, Schwesterchen, 2015-19
BARBARA MARCEL + ANA HUPE | 2-Channel Video Installation
Pará-BR / Germany, HD-Video, Sound, 13min + 43min
(Stills by Barbara Marcel).
The video gathers images and interviews with local Amazon women activists and herbalists, filmed by Barbara Marcel and Ana Hupe in Santarém, Alter do Chão and in the community of Anã between 2013 and 2017. The second channel brings fragments of the first film ever shot in the Amazonian forest, No Paiz das Amazonas (1922), merged with images of present-day soy monocultures and local politicians discussing town planning. The surviving ancestral indigenous process of manufacturing manioc flour is also juxtaposed with an old recording of Macushi indigenous people singing a women’s labour song recorded by the German naturalist Theodor Koch-Grünberg between 1911 and 1913 during a trip to the Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazon. Mixing the sound material contained in the Köch-Grünberg wax rolls with contemporary images demonstrating the survival of indigenous technology in the production of manioc flour in caboclo communities in the Amazon region, the artists experiment with the possibilities of productive shocks between past and present, and challenge viewers to listen to the Phonographic Archive of Berlin-Dahlem Museum in a decolonial way.
Film Credits (Technische Angaben)
Interviews
Luciene Santos | Activist and Herbalist at GECEM- Casa de Chico Mendes, PA-BR)
Izilda Godinho aka Piquixita | Herbalist from the Community of Anã, in the Extractive Reserve of Tapajós-Arapiuns, PA-BR
Claudete Munduruku | Defender of the Munduruku indigenous rights and teacher at Aldeia Sauré, Itaituba, PA-BR
Images
Barbara Marcel and Ana Hupe
Editing
Barbara Marcel
Soundtrack
ContraNatura (2015) by Thelmo Cristovam
Walzenaufnahmen aus Brasilien (1911-1913). Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv Series Historische Klangdokumente – 3. Arbeitsgesänge - Gesang Beim Maniokreiben, Gruppe Makuschí
Additional Images
No Paiz das Amazonas (In the land of the Amazon, Manaus, 1922), a film by Agesilau De Araujo and Silvino Santos.
Der Edison-Phonograph, by UnterbergerMedien, 2014. Auftraggeber: Helbling Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Produzent: M&P Unterberger KG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4koqcfAzSCQ
National Museum: the neglect of history, Tv Brasil. September 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPp1oR6JrPg
Ass. of Finalization
Alice Dalgalarrondo
Transcripts and subtitles
Paulina Hupe
Special Thanks to
Marty Hiatt, Kandyê Medina, Fabio Ribeiro, Hugus Félix, Project Saúde e Alegria, Thais Helena Medeiros, Caetano Scannavino, CEFA – Centro Experimental Floresta Ativa, Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation – ICMBio, Casa Bicho, MUSA, Mulheres Sonhadoras de Anã, Rodrigo Lopes, Marisa Mello, Luciene Santos, Izilda Godinho aka Piquixita, Claudete Munduruku, Alice Alfano.
Most of the video footage was taken during a residence of artist Barbara Marcel at Casa Bicho, Alter do Chão in December 2017.