Research on indigenous audiovisual production is included in the USP Outstanding Thesis Award

It is with great satisfaction that we communicate that the doctoral thesis "Ijã Mytyli: The Manoki and the Mỹky in their new audiovisual-stories" of the researcher André Luís Lopes Neves, under the guidance of professor Renato Sztutman, received the USP Outstanding Thesis Award in the area of knowledge of Innovation.

André defended his PhD thesis in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2023 and, since 2008, has been researching and working with the peoples Manoki and Mỹky, in the state of Mato Grosso. In addition, since 2011, has been conducting audiovisual workshops with five other indigenous peoples of Brazil, with activities involving production, filming, editing and directing videos in a shared way. 

During his doctoral research, André produced two feature films and five short films co-directed by indigenous people, which are part of his thesis. Besides method, the use of audiovisual resources was a form of mediation of the study and presentation of its results. The researcher chose to use audiovisual tools so that the research could be better shared with groups, as well as to offer a form of counterpart for communities. 

The methodological proposal of the study was to displace the principle "evans-pritchardiano", according to which the anthropologist should study what he finds in the field, to choose to study and deepen in the topics that indigenous filmmakers choose to film in the field, above all the elements that are edited and included in the films. Several subjects were topics of the anthropological research, such as the 'ãjãí' parties, which are the ball games (a new theme in the ethnographic literature), and the rituals of initiation of boys to the house of the spirits Jeta.

With the increase of interest of young people in audiovisual production, during the research was created the Ijã Mytyli Collective of Cinema Manoki and Mỹky, as a way of continuity and dynamization and indigenous protagonism of the activities that were already happening, above all the training of new filmmakers within the communities, directors who tell their own stories with their equipment of capture and editing. 

The film 

The uses, meanings and agencies attributed by the Manoki and Mỹky to audiovisual resources have shown that they operate as amplified cosmopolitical mediators of interspecific relations. The cinemas (in plural) made by indigenous peoples have offered a viable way to get to know their worlds closely and learn how to better care for our relations between humans and non-humans that co-inhabit our planet.

The award included theses defended between January 1 and December 31, 2023, which within their areas of expertise, dialogue with the areas distributed in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Some of the films produced are available on LISA’s website