North American Premiere
An intimate portrait of people who have never encountered an “other”. In 2019, FUNAI, a Brazilian state protection agency which works for Indigenous rights, sent an expedition of 30 people into the heart of the Amazon rainforest, to make first contact, provide medical services, locate and reunite separated family members with the Korubo, an isolated Indigenous group.
As they travel between the borders of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia, alert to the constant dangers in the deep jungle, the lines between subject and object are blurred and at times reversed, as the natural dynamic and camaraderie of the group is reshaped around Bruno Pereira, a FUNAI veteran who was killed while working in the same region several years after filming, and Xuxu, a charismatic Korubo leader separated from his family.
Director Bruno Jorge crafts an immersive ethnographic journey that breaks apart monolithic assumptions in favour of an honest perspective of the Korubo that defies easy classification. A powerful, essential film, deftly blending poignancy and human dignity against a background of unanswered political and ethical questions.
Series Media Partner
Community Partner
Brazil
2022
Insights
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Bruno Jorge
Screenwriter
Bruno Jorge
Cinematography
Bruno Jorge
Editor
Bruno Jorge
Original Music
Bruno Palazzo
Director
Bruno Jorge
Bruno Jorge studied Social Communication in São Paulo, Brazil, Documentary Film in Paris, France, and Master in Performing Arts in Liège, Belgium. Influenced by ethnography, visual anthropology and experimental cinema, Bruno has made over 20 films.
Filmography: Beco (2012); What I Could Be If I Were (2015); Piripkura (2017)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Fantasia
Walt Disney pushed the boundaries of animation and sound recording when he put together a movie concert: eight classical pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Stravinski et al, each animated in a different style. It's playful, sometimes cute, other times inspired.
Image: © Disney, 1940
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
The Baltimorons
An early Xmas present and the rom-com of the year: a dental emergency on Christmas Eve brings together flailing comedian Chris and cynical divorcee Didi for a series of low-key urban misadventures.
The Leading Ladies Perform Duke Ellington's The Nutcracker Suite
Join us for a unique Nutcracker experience: a live jazz rendition of Duke Ellington's take on Tchaikovsky's music, followed by the premiere of an inspiring doc about how even Covid 19 couldn't stop New York ballet's finest from staging the Xmas favourite.

