For Ayoreo peoples in the Gran Chaco of northern Paraguay, the future remains unclear. In this radical experimental film, Ayoreo leader Mateo Sobode Chiqueno visually explores the terms of present-day life on an evangelical mission. The filmmaker creates a visionary cinematic reflection on what it means to affirm Ayoreo life in the aftermath of colonial violence and social upheaval.
The filmmaker Sobode writes, “Ujirei refers to many things. We Ayoreo know that some plants can grow new versions of themselves after they have been damaged. A whole new tree can emerge from a severed stump or even a piece of wood. Ujirei is the word in our language for that kind of new growth. But it can also refer to something that emerges from a prior version. Everything in this film is a sort of ujirei. Maybe even the film itself is an ujirei too.
I made this film so that people in other countries can learn about my people. I want them to know about what happened to us Ayoreo in the past. I want them to think about what kind of futures we are creating from the present. I want people to watch this film and know that we should be respected as human beings.
Those who watch this film may have questions. They may ask: how does the film show the idea of ujirei? How do outsiders treat Ayoreo people in Paraguay? Why do outsiders not respect Ayoreo people? Why did the missionaries take Ayoreo people out of the forest? How are Ayoreo people creating new possibilities and what are they?”
“Ujirei is a further illustration of how the collaborative production of Indigenous cinema remains an effective technique for enacting a decolonizing, anti-essentialist, and anti-extractive anthropological praxis.”- Lucas Bessire & Bernard Belisario, Tipití –Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America
"One of the most radical films of emerging Indigenous cinema.” - Vincent Carelli, founder of Video in the Villages
Selected Screenings & Awards
Merit in Film Award, Latin American Studies Association, Colombia, 2024
University of Zurich Ethnographic Museum, Switzerland, 2021
Cine Kurumun - Festival Internacional de Cinema Indígena, Brazil, 2021
Festival Internacional de Cine y las Artes Indígena de Wallmapu (FICWALLMAPU), Chile, 2018
Premio Internacional Anaconda, Paraguay, 2018
Festival Int'l de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas y Originarios, Guatemala, 2018
Anaconda Prize Indigenous Film Festival, Paraguay, 2018
Forumdoc Festival, Brazil, 2017