Ameridian Cinema: Silence and Avoidance in Translation

Abstract

This article approaches Guarani indigenous people’s conceptual imagination through the documentaries “Tekoha - o som da terra” (2017) of Rodrigo Arajeju and Valdelice Veron and “Os verdadeiros líderes espirituais” (2013) of Alberto Alvares. We started from the sound and visual language put different cosmologies (Indigenous and Western) in dialogue. The first film, which addresses the serious humanitarian crisis in the reserves and areas of resumption faced by the Kaiowá people in Mato Grosso do Sul, provides an opportunity to discuss how cinematographic language works in this work to express the mourning and struggle of these people. The second film, which deals with the Guarani way of being (nhande reko) based on the knowledge of the xeramõi Alcindo and xejarji Rosa, in Santa Catarina, opens the occasion to consider how silence and avoidance constitute Guarani’s strategic invisibility.