After winning first place in the Pierre Verger Awards in the Photographic Essays category, the products developed from the project titled “Indigenous Document Heritage: Collaborative Work Between FGV CPDOC and the Apinajé People” continue to have repercussions in national and international exhibitions and competitions. Now, the project’s documentary, “Akupӯnh Awjanã Reencounters,” has been shortlisted for Cine Kurumin, an indigenous film festival supported by the Brazilian Culture Ministry.

The film, which is competing in the Feature Film category, premiered on July 30 at a special screening held in FGV’s main building in Rio de Janeiro. Directed by Andressa Iremex Apinajé, Celso Castro, Gabriel Cardoso, Laura Guimarães and Odair Giraldin, the film shows the return of anthropologist Roberto DaMatta, after more than 40 years, to the Apinajé territory.

In the 1960s, DaMatta carried out fieldwork among the Apinajé people and amassed a collection of photographs, audio recordings and a Super 8 film about their culture. In 2022, he donated this personal archive to FGV CPDOC, which gave rise to this project in collaboration with the Apinajé people, with the aim of compiling records of historical and cultural heritage in order to reinforce the historical, cultural and personal importance of the Apinajé people.

While showing the anthropologist’s reunion with the Apinajé people, the documentary also demonstrates some fundamental characteristics of their customs and culture, accompanied by interviews and reports from both DaMatta and the indigenous individuals who had contact with the anthropologist in the 1960s or heard about him through the generations.

The dean of Fundação Getulio Vargas’ School of Social Sciences (FGV CPDOC) and the documentary’s co-director, Celso Castro, emphasizes that the images were able to capture moments that were not only historic, but also very emotional. “From the outset, this project was permeated by many emotions on both sides, as well as several meetings and reconnections. We are extremely pleased with our collaboration with the Apinajé people and the spectacular results this project has already achieved. It is a milestone not only for CPDOC but for FGV as a whole,” he says.

Find out more about the Cine Kurumin festival.

ANPOCS’ 48^th Annual Meeting

In addition to the Cine Kurumin film festival, the documentary “Akupӯnh Awjanã Reencounters” and the photo essay “Mirrors of Memory: Archival Images and the Recovery of the Past” were selected to be presented at the 48^th Annual Meeting of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Social Sciences (ANPOCS). This event will take place from October 16 to 18 in virtual format and from October 23 to 25 in person at Campinas State University in Sao Paulo State.

This year’s meeting is sponsored by the Brazilian Education Ministry’s graduate education support agency (CAPES), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the federal government and José Luiz Edygio Setúbal Foundation. The activities will include talks, roundtable discussions, presentations of academic papers, book launches, a photo exhibition and video screenings. To find out more, click here.

To learn more about FGV CPDOC’s winning of a Pierre Verger Award and see the full photo essay, click here.