Happened at LISA

The film “Rio das Mortes: nossa vida” will be shown in the AntropoCena session on June 12, 2025, at 5:00 p.m., in the LISA auditorium, in partnership with the Visual Anthropology Group of the University of São Paulo (GRAVI-USP), and will feature the presence of Ana Lúcia Ferraz, Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology and Coordinator of the Ethnographic Film Laboratory of the Fluminense Federal University (UFF).

Ana Lúcia graduated from USP and holds a master's degree in Anthropology (1999), a PhD in Sociology (2005), and a postdoctoral degree in Social Anthropology (2010). She currently works in the fields of Indigenous Ethnology and Visual Anthropology, and is the author of a series of ethnographic films, including, with the Guarani Nhandeva, Nhande Ywy/Nosso Território (2018) and Öwawe dahoimanadzé/Rio das Mortes: nossa vida (2024).

It is a film that explores the ancestral territory of the A’uwé uptabi people (Xavante) and presents their relationship with the waters of the Rio das Mortes, which is threatened by hydroelectric dams. The objective of this ethnography in progress is to establish the territoriality of the A’uwé Xavante by documenting their diverse practices with the river, their cosmological conceptions, and the centrality of hunting in the A’uwé way of life in the Cerrado.

Film produced by LISA had its premiere at the UN Forum and the American Museum of Natural History

The Jaime Cortesão Chair invites you to the event “ÒMÌNIRA - Disputes and achievements for the black presence in history”, from May 12 to 15, 2025, at the Milton Santos Auditorium (Geography and History Building | FFLCH-USP). The objective is to discuss topics related to anti-racist struggles, the black presence in history and forms of resistance within the university.

The Image and Sound Laboratory in Anthropology (LISA-USP) will be represented by Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji at the panel “The tone of music: harmony and dissonance”, on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 7 pm.

Check out the full event schedule on the website: https://cjc.fflch.usp.br/eventos

Schedule:

The Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP) and the Visual Anthropology Group (GRAVI-USP) invite you to the AntropoCena session of the film "Alma e Sangue no Atlântico Negro - O pensamento de Luiz Felipe de Alencastro", directed by Celso Prudente, professor at the School of Education at the University of São Paulo (FEUSP), with assistance from Ana Vitória Prudente, who will be present to discuss the work.

Ana Vitória is a PhD candidate in Education at USP, has a master's degree in Education from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), a bachelor's degree in Performing Arts from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and a degree in Arts from the University of Évora, in Portugal. She works on the educational programs of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) and the Campos do Jordão Festival. She is a curatorial and production assistant for the International Black Cinema Festival (MICINE) and a production assistant for the Quilombo Academia Program on Rádio USP 93.7 FM.

On April 10, 2025, the film "Holobiont Society" by Swiss artist Dominique Koch will be shown at the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP), starting at 8 pm.

Comprising a visual exhibition that has been touring several countries, Holobiont Society delves into a complex set of issues related to hierarchies, power structures and concepts of coexistence, defined by the term holobiont.

Created by biologist Lynn Margulis, co-developer of the Gaia hypothesis, the concept refers to an integrated ecological and evolutionary unit formed by a host organism and all the microorganisms that live in association with it.

In the film, the holobiont is visualized through scientific images of corals, bacteria and other symbiotic organisms, which emerge on the screen along with an elaborate sound design, which works in synergy with excerpts from interviews with biologist, feminist and writer Donna Haraway, as well as philosopher and sociologist Maurizio Lazzarato and molecular biologist Scott Gilbert.

The screening is an outreach activity of the Anthropology, Environment and Biotechnodiversity Collective (CHAMA) and LISA, in addition to being part of the "Anthropology of Microorganisms" course, taught by postdoctoral fellow Leonardo Dupin.

The Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP) will host on April 29, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., the lecture "Ruins of photography: migrations of family archives and their ecosystems of belonging" by researcher Dr. Fabiana Bruno, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Anthropology at USP supervised by Professor Dr. Sylvia Caiuby Novaes.

The lecture will address the context and policies of “emerging collections” formed with abandoned or discarded photos, in particular, vernacular family photographs unlinked from personal albums. The starting point will be the presentation of an overview of the stories of three “emerging collections” researched: Arab Image Foundation (AIF), Lebanon; Found Photo Foundation, England; and ACHO – Arquivo Coleção de Histórias Ordinárias, Brazil.

In these emerging collections, the collected and sheltered vernacular photographs – from diverse sources – acquire other ways of survival, when they are destined for a “second life” in re-gatherings, within the scope of “anarchical” initiatives (Seligmann-Silva, 2023) in different places around the world. In what way does the way of life of these photographs, when gathered in other archival environments, devoid of family belongings, point to other epistemologies of images and archives in anthropology?

Registration for the extension course "Documentary and Ethnography in Brazil: The Cinema of Eduardo Coutinho" is open until April 21, 2025. It will be held from April 29, 2025 to July 1, 2025, in distance learning.

The course aims to explore the relationship between Eduardo Coutinho's documentary cinema and ethnographic practice, highlighting how the Brazilian filmmaker uses documentary as a tool for reflecting on the social reality of Brazil, especially after 1960. Based on the analysis of key works by Coutinho, the course seeks to investigate the specificities of his cinematic approach, which dialogues with anthropological methods of observation, description and the prioritization of the local and the particular. In addition, it intends to discuss the historical and aesthetic impact of documentary cinema in Brazil, considering that Coutinho produced films over half a century, which configures his work as a kind of documentation of the historical, social and political inflections that marked the country during this period. The course also aims to fill a gap in academic studies on Coutinho's work within anthropology, offering a critical and integrated reading of cinema and ethnography.