Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Chagnon, Napoleon / All Films

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Yanomamö Series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Yanomamö Series
Buy Now: $5,770.00

In 1968 and again in 1971 filmmaker Timothy Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon collaborated on a project to film the Yanomamö Indians in southern Venezuela and northern Brazil. Chagnon had conducted research among the Yanomamö beginning in 1964, and Asch had previously filmed in the field in Africa and Japan. During his first field trip, Chagnon used a 16mm Bolex to film selected aspects of Yanomamö life.

Several of these films are also available on the Yanomamö Shorts DVD collection, a 2007 re-mastered/authored 2-disc set which also contains eight previously unreleased short Yanomamö films and additional information about the series.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

Tug-of-War, Yanomam�� *

Climbing the Peach Palm *

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Yanomamö Short Films

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Yanomamö Short Films
Buy Now: $545.00

This 2-DVD set combines 17 short Yanomamö films in a 2007 compilation which contains additional background information about the series. Six of the films on Disc One were remastered in 2021. The updated versions are included here, and are also available in the set Yanomamo Films: Remastered, Vol 1.

Disc One contains all previously released titles:

Arrow Game *

Children's Magical Death *

A Father Washes His Children *

Firewood

A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock *

Tapir Distribution

Tug-of-War

Weeding the Garden *

* Remastered 2021

Disc Two collects eight previously unreleased short films from the series. They only exist as what Asch called "slopticals," duplicated workprints with optical tracks that he assembled in order to receive feedback from fellow filmmakers. Although they lack narration or translated subtitles, they show many interesting aspects of social life:

Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden (6 min)

The warmth of adult-child interaction is shown as children play with the resting Dedeheiwä.

Children Roasting Meat (5 min)

Several children sit and play together. One roasts meat and bananas over a small fire.

A Woman Spins (8 min)

A woman reclines in the shade, spinning while a baby tries to play with her thread.

Children Make a Toy Hammock (7 min)

While running around and playing, a few children work on a smaller version of the hammocks their parents make.

Sand Play (19 min)

Boys and girls aged four to seven sit in a tight circle and play around a sand pile.

Playing in the Rain (8 min)

Children and adults play tug of war in the rain.

Mouth Wrestling (5 min)

Teenagers wrestle over a wad of tobacco.

Young Shaman (10 min)

A young shaman, still an initiate, gets sick and loses control on the hallucinogen ebene.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Children's Magical Death

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Children's Magical Death
Buy Now: $545.00

A group of Yanomami boys, ages four to ten, pretend to be shamen and imitate the drug-taking and hekura-spirit-calling ceremonies of their fathers. The children, using ashes as their "drug," blow it up each others nostrils and chant and dance as if under the influence of ebene. Near the end they attempt to draw out the evil spirits in a "sick" boy and effect a shamanistic cure.

This short film of children's "play" explores how children imitate their parents and prepare for adult life. Young boys can become real shaman at the age of 16 or 17. The film, Magical Death, also part of the Yanomamö series portrays a shamanistic event in the same community.

Children's Magical Death was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

This film is included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation DVD. This two-disc set includes the following remastered titles on Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden. Also included on Disc One: Firewood, Tapir Distribution and Tug-of-War. Disc Two includes: Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Climbing the Peach Palm

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Climbing the Peach Palm
Buy Now: $545.00

The ingenuity of Yanomamö technology is revealed in the climbing frame used to scale the spiny trunk of the peach palm tree. Here a young man collects the fruit for his in-laws by means of two frames, each constructed of two crisscrossed poles. As he perches on one frame, he raises (or lowers) the other, onto which he carefully steps, continuing in this manner up (or down) the entire tree.

Climbing the Peach Palm was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

This film is included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation DVD. This two-disc set includes the following remastered titles on Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden. Also included on Disc One: Firewood, Tapir Distribution and Tug-of-War. Disc Two includes: Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Firewood

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Firewood
Buy Now: $545.00

The strenuousness of women's work is revealed as a woman patiently chops a large log for firewood one evening, enough to last one day. Her two children play nearby, and she occasionally stops to nurse the younger. The wood is loaded into a basket and she walks slowly back to the village, the heavy burden slung on a tumpline from her forehead, the young child in her arms.

This film is included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation DVD. This two-disc set includes the following remastered titles on Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden. Also included on Disc One: Firewood, Tapir Distribution and Tug-of-War. Disc Two includes: Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

The Feast

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

The Feast
Buy Now: $320.00

Yanomamö feasts are ceremonial, social, economic, and political events. They are occasions for men to adorn their bodies with paint and feathers, to display their strength in dance and ritualized aggression; for trading partnerships to be established or affirmed; and for the creation or testing of alliances.

In this feast, filmed in 1968, the Patanowa-teri had invited the Mahekodo-teri to their village. The two groups had been allies until a few years before this event, when they had fought over the abduction of a woman. They now hoped to renew their broken alliance, which they did successfully. Soon after the filmed feast, the two villages together raided a common enemy.

A detailed discussion of this feast, and of the significance of feasting among the Yanomamö, is found in chapter 4 of Chagnon's Yanomamö: The Fierce People. The film's graphic representation of reciprocity and exchange may enrich (and be enriched by) a reading of Marcel Mauss' The Gift.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

CINE Golden Eagle

Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival

Flaherty Award

Festival dei Popoli, Florence Italy

Grand Prize, Venice International Art Film Festival International Folklore & Tourism Festival

Exceptional Merit, Philadelphia International Festival of Short Films

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

A Father Washes His Children

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

A Father Washes His Children
Buy Now: $545.00

Dedeheiwä, a shaman and headman in his village, takes nine of his children and grandchildren to the river where he washes them carefully and patiently. This film, like A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock and Weeding the Garden, reveals the warmth and gentleness typical of Yanomamö domestic life and interactions.

A Father Washes His Children was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Jaguar

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Jaguar
Buy Now: $320.00

The richness of Yanomamö mythology is again revealed in this film (compare Moonblood and both Myths of Naro), as is the remarkable skill of another Yanomamö storyteller.

The myth in this case is that of Jaguar, a prominent figure throughout South American Indian mythology. Long ago, Curare Woman tasted bitter, so Jaguar did not eat her. Curare Woman hid her pregnant daughter in the roof above Jaguar's hammock, and sent Jaguar far away to hunt while her daughter was fed by birds whom she protected. One day the daughter pissed all over Jaguar. He smelled the urine and smashed the daughter to the ground, killing her. Curare Woman took the daughter's twin fetuses and hid them in a bark container, where they became hekura spirits. When they grew to be men and became Raware', they sought revenge. Through cunning and with an arrow obtained from the sky's edge, they succeeded in killing Jaguar.

Daramasiwa, who tells the myth, remains hunkering on the ground in one spot, yet through his dramatic body movements and versatile voice he conveys a sense of tremendous distance traveled, and of the qualities of the different characters.

This film, together with the films of the Naro and the Moonblood myths, suggests reflections on the nature of performance and communication in Yanomamö culture. At the same time the films remind the viewer of the complexity of the intellectual system in this culture, and might nicely complement a reading of Claude Levi-Strauss' Mythologiques.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

American Film Festival Finalist

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†

* included on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation
† included in the Yanomamö Films: Remastered, Vol. 1 set

Visit Chagnon, Napoleon to see additional products in this category.

Moonblood

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:50:00 GMT

Moonblood
Buy Now: $295.00

In this myth, the Yanomamö account for the creation of human beings and for their ferocity. The myth is told by the shaman Dedeheiwä.

Long ago, when people "like us" lived in a village "over there," Moon lived there too, and ate the souls of children. The villagers became very angry, especially because when Moon descended to consume the ashes of children, hanging from the roof in gourds, he crunched and chanted as he gloated over his evil tricks. So the ancestor Suhirina, who was very beautiful and tall, shot the moon with a bamboo-tipped arrow, and Moon's blood spilled all over the earth. Human beings came from this blood: strong and fierce people from the center where the most blood spilled, and weaker people from the Moon's droplets.

You are from true blood, Dedeheiwä tells Chagnon, because there are many of you; my own village is weak, as we are descended from the droplets. It is because of Moon's blood, explains the shaman, that men fight and kill each other.

Moonblood was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Films in the Yanomamö series:

Arrow Game *†