Happened at LISA

On September 15, 2025, at 4 p.m., the Métis Convida edition will feature Alex Flynn, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Flynn will present his research, "Paths to Utopia: Temporalities of Transformation in the Landless Movement."

Since its founding in 1984, the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) has become an international benchmark for agrarian reform struggles. For forty years, the MST has been a beacon of hope. While other progressive movements have dissipated, the MST persists with renewed vigor, providing secure land and housing to more than half a million people and settling 450,000 families. Nevertheless, MST members speak of agrarian…

How can we learn from animals to recover from catastrophic forest fires? In this presentation, Verónica Policarpo will address this question based on the ABIDE project, which examines post-fire recovery in three countries: Brazil, Portugal, and Australia. Policarpo will share aspects of her fieldwork in the Serra da Estrela region and discuss ways animals can inspire the creation of multispecies communities with greater ecological diversity, leading to more effective post-fire regeneration and resilience.

Policarpo is an anthropologist and a senior researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), as well as the coordinator of the Human-…

An ethnographic exploration of anthropological failure through the Mapuche archetypes of witch, clown, and usurper How do we learn what failure looks like? During the years anthropologist Magnus Course spent living with Indigenous Mapuche people in southern Chile, he came to understand failure—both his own and those of the discipline of anthropology—through Mapuche narratives of the witch, the clown, and the usurper. In a context of enduring poverty and racism, increasing state repression, and his own disintegration, he began to realize that these figures of failure, and their insatiable appetites for destruction, greed, and property, reflected as much upon his own failings as on anybody…

LISA-USP is pleased to invite you to the AntropoCena screening of Adó, Mestre dos Sons (Adó, Master of Sounds), directed by Jorge Lampa Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos will be present to discuss his work. Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji will moderate the discussion.

Vasconcelos is a musician, singer, cantador, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is also an adjunct professor of popular music at the Center for Culture, Languages, and Applied Technologies at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (CECULT-UFRB). He has a solid academic background: he received a bachelor's degree in Popular Music in 1993, a master's degree in Arts in…

On June 27, 2025, at 2 pm, LISA will host the lecture “Seeking ‘the best of both worlds’: how a black truffle hunting dog is made in Chile”,  promoted by the Anthropology and Biotechnodiversity Collective (CHAMA-USP), under the coordination of Guilherme Moura Fagundes.

In this presentation, Luísa Fanaro will discuss the practices of preparing human-canine pairs for hunting black truffles (Tuber melanosporum)  in Chile. Based on her ethnography, the author shows that this process depends on a dual dynamic of communication: between dogs and  truffles — an underground fungus — and between dogs and humans. If, on the one hand, it is…

The Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP) will host, on June 26, 2025, at 7 pm, the lecture "Microbes and Rituals in  Varanasi: an ethnography through the waters of the Ganges River". The event is an extension activity of the Anthropology and  Biotechnodiversity Collective (CHAMA-USP) and is part of the program of the discipline "Anthropology of Microorganisms", coordinated by  Guilherme Moura Fagundes.

Victor Secco will present central themes of his doctoral research, defended at the University of Manchester (England), which investigates the  intersections between science, religion and multispecies interactions, based on an ethnography conducted with Hindu…

The Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP) will show four contemporary Guarani films in its auditorium, in special sessions, as part of the AntropoCena project, followed by debates with guests. Originating from the discipline Extension Practices in Indigenous Ethnology, under the guidance of Professor Pedro Cesarino, the exhibition aims to foster debate on issues dear to indigenous peoples, such as the relationship between territory and identity, in addition to raising, with a focus on the Guarani, discussions on the place of indigenous cinema in the national and international audiovisual panorama and giving visibility to this production.

Program:

DAY 1…

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…

"São Palco - Cidade Afropolitana" is among those selected for the "Territories and Memory Competition" at the 14th Ecofalante Film Festival. The competition is aimed at Brazilian productions or co-productions that address issues related to one or more territories in the country or that address themes linked to individual or collective memories.
Considered the most important South American event for audiovisual production linked to socio-environmental themes, the Ecofalante Film Festival has free admission to all of its activities and will take place from May 28 to June 11, 2025.
The film "São Palco - Cidade Afropolitana" will be shown at the following cinemas:

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

The film “Hosts Half a Century Ago: The Mỹky Version of History”, co-produced by the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP) in partnership with the Ijã Mytyli Collective of Manoki and Mỹky Cinema, had its premiere at an exhibition organized by the Latin American Coordination of Cinema and Indigenous Peoples (CLACPI) and New York University (NYU). The screening took place on April 25, 2025 and was part of a side event of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Director Typju Mỹky also participated in the Forum, as the first Mỹky person to…