Yãmĩyhex, the Women-Spirit
After spending a few months in the Vila Verde Village, the yãmĩyhex (women-spirit) prepare to leave. The filmmakers Sueli and Isael Maxakali register the preparations and the great feast for their farewell. During the feast days, a legion of spirits crosses the village. The yãmĩyhex go away, but they always come back missing their fathers and mothers
Sueli Maxakali
Isael Maxakali
Also Directed by Sueli Maxakali
In the past, when white people didn’t exist, we used to hunt with our yãmĩyxop spirits. The whites came, cut down the trees, dried up the rivers and scared the animals away. Today, our tall trees are over, the whites surrounded us and our lands are tiny. But our yãmĩyxop are very strong and taught us the stories and chants from our ancients who walked around here.
Filmed on their own land, This Land is our Land! is a unique and multilayered visual cartography made by Brazilian Indigenous filmmakers Isael and Sueli Maxakali and their collaborators. Following Yãmīhex: The Women-Spirit (2019), a landmark in Brazilian Indigenous cinema, Isael and Sueli Maxakali have crafted another personal film that shifts across multiple forms, combining mourning practices, rituals, and chanting, with interviews and observational material to create a study of white violence that reminds us of the urgency of seeing beyond the western gaze. Sharing their complex understanding of physical, historical, and mythological space through the film’s form, the filmmakers chart a hypnotic journey that acts as a manifesto against all kinds of borders, those that divide nations and those that demarcate land. Farmers in the area may have violently taken their land, but this has not silenced them, as is shown by this film with its tender yet boldly confrontational gaze.
Also Directed by Isael Maxakali
In the past, when white people didn’t exist, we used to hunt with our yãmĩyxop spirits. The whites came, cut down the trees, dried up the rivers and scared the animals away. Today, our tall trees are over, the whites surrounded us and our lands are tiny. But our yãmĩyxop are very strong and taught us the stories and chants from our ancients who walked around here.
The boys of an Tikmu'un - Maxakali village are initiated by the spirits that live on the ground. From now on they will be able to attend the kuxex (house of religion), socialize, feed and learn from the Yãmiyxop.
Konãgxeka, in the Maxakali indigenous language, means "big water" - It is the Maxakali version of the flood story, sent by the yãmîy spirits as a punishment for the selfishness and greed of men. The illustrations for the film were made during a workshop held at Aldeia Verde Maxakali, in the municipality of Ladainha, Minas Gerais.
A Maxakali filmmaker retrieves memories of the violence suffered by his village during the formation of Grin (the indigenous rural guard) during the brasilian military dictatorship.
Filmed on their own land, This Land is our Land! is a unique and multilayered visual cartography made by Brazilian Indigenous filmmakers Isael and Sueli Maxakali and their collaborators. Following Yãmīhex: The Women-Spirit (2019), a landmark in Brazilian Indigenous cinema, Isael and Sueli Maxakali have crafted another personal film that shifts across multiple forms, combining mourning practices, rituals, and chanting, with interviews and observational material to create a study of white violence that reminds us of the urgency of seeing beyond the western gaze. Sharing their complex understanding of physical, historical, and mythological space through the film’s form, the filmmakers chart a hypnotic journey that acts as a manifesto against all kinds of borders, those that divide nations and those that demarcate land. Farmers in the area may have violently taken their land, but this has not silenced them, as is shown by this film with its tender yet boldly confrontational gaze.