DER Documentary
Owners of the Water: Conflict and Collaboration Over Rivers ("ö Tede'wa")
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by Laura R. Graham, David Hernández Palmar, Caimi Waiassé
color, 34 min, 2009
with subtitles in English, Spanish, or Portuguese
Pricing information and conditions
A unique collaboration between two indigenous filmmakers and an anthropologist, Owners of the Water is a compelling documentary with groundbreaking ethnographic imagery. A central Brazilian Xavante, a Wayuu from Venezuela, and a US anthropologist explore an indigenous campaign to protect a river from devastating effects of uncontrolled Amazonian soy cultivation. Xavante and Wayuu are nationally and internationally prominent political actors and both face challenges over water.
Owners highlights a civic protest showing strategic use of culture to bring attention to deforestation and excessive use of agritoxins in unregulated soy cultivation. The film features a diversity of Xavante opinions and evidence that non-indigenous members of the local population both support and oppose indigenous demands. The film showcases indigenous efforts to build networks among different native peoples and across nations.
The film results from long collaboration between anthropologist Laura Graham and Xavante and more recent collaboration with Wayuu. The Association Xavante Wară, a Xavante organization that promotes indigenous knowledge and ways of living in the central Brazilian cerrado (a spiritually and materially integrated space that Xavante know as 'ro) and conservation of this unique environment, invited Graham to tell the story of its campaign to save the Rio das Mortes. David Hernández Palmar, a Wayuu (Iipuana clan) from Venezuela, accompanied Graham to meet the Xavante and learn about their struggles over water. After the trip the Xavante and Wayuu filmmakers and the anthropologist made this film based on the ethnographic footage of their intercultural encounters.
Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
International Meeting of the Latin American Sociology Association, Brazil 2011
Honorable Mention Award for Advocacy, Montana CINE International Film Festival, 2011
Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2010
Bioneers Moving Image Festival, New Mexico, 2010
American Anthropological Association/Society for Visual Anthropology Conference, New Orleans, LA, 2010
International Unseen Film "Filme Sozialak"" Festival, Bilbao, Spain, 2010
"Visual Representation of Crisis through Ethnographic Film," EASA Biennial Conference, Ireland, 2010
Contro-Sguardi: International Anthropological Film Festival, Perugia, Italy, 2010
Honorable Mention - Best Environmental Documentary, XXVII Festival de Cine de Bogotá, Colombia, 2010
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