From 15th to 26th February, Brazilian filmmaker Takumã Kuikuro is back in the UK to launch his new documentary London as a Village. He’ll be participating in a number of screenings + Q&As happening at different organisations and universities across London, starting with the premiere of the film at the Embassy of Brazil on the 15th February, 6.30pm. The screening will be followed by a Q&A on indigenous traditions and culture with the indigenous filmmaker himself, alongside Professor Paul Heritage. (To book a place at this screening, please send an email to: [email protected])
In April 2015, Takumã Kuikuro travelled all the way from his village, set within the Xingu Indigenous Territory (Central Brazil), to the UK to take up a challenge from People’s Palace Projects: to spend a month in London producing and directing a film that would capture his vision of the city as a “village”.
Takumã was selected from dozens of applicants through a grant scheme called ‘Culture Connection Brazil’, promoted by Brazil’s Ministry of Culture with the support of the British Council and the Transform Programme. He was commissioned to record London from an indigenous perspective, exploring similarities and differences between his Kuikuro culture and the Londoners he christened “the Hyper-Whites”. The result is a captivating and humorous anthropological documentary about western society and the many villages hidden under the skyscrapers of London.
The screenings and talks with Takumã Kuikuro are part of TACE – The Art of Cultural Exchange studies, which proposes an investigation into cultural exchange as an act of translation. It will focus on the transformations sought through the exchange of artists, arts production and artistic methodologies. The research project will ask what happens when artists translate ideas and practices from one cultural context to another: what gets lost and what gets learned in the adaptation? The research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, in partnership with the British Council and the support of Arts Council England, the project is a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Check other screenings+ Q&A of London as a village happening in town:
15th February, 6.30pm – Embassy of Brazil in London (open to the public, rsvp at [email protected])
19th February, 6pm – Queen Mary University of London – Hitchcock Cinema- Arts One building (open to public, first come first serve basis)
22nd February, 6pm – East15, University of Essex (Closed event for East 15 students)
23rd February, 6.30pm – The Lyric Theatre (Closed event for Young People Programme)
24th February, 6pm – Birkbeck Centre for Latin America Visual Studies (Closed event for students)
25th February, 7pm – SOAS Native Spirit Society (Open to public, booking required)
About Takumã Kuikuro
Internationally recognised filmmaker Takumã is a member of the Kuikuro people, and grew up in the Ipatse village within the Alto Xingú Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso state, central Brazil. Aged 18, he was introduced to a group of anthropologists studying the villages, and became keen to learn Portuguese. It was through the anthropologists’ documentary team that he also discovered a passion: filmmaking.
Through the project ‘Vídeo nas Aldeias’ – a film project that trains indigenous people to document their society and culture through images, founded by anthropologist Vicente Carelli, – Takumã started to shoot, direct and edit films about his village’s day to day activities, rituals and oral stories. His films started to spread quickly across Brazil and internationally, and soon he was presenting them in both local and international festivals. He was acclaimed for films
such as The Day the Moon Menstruated, The Hyperwomen and Kariokas. Takumã became an Associate Artist of People’s Palace Projects in Autumn 2015.