Yanuni

This is one, and the latest, of three recent documentaries about the Indigenous and environmental struggle in the Brazilian Amazon (the other two are *The Territory" and "We are Guardians." Each has strengths. *Yanuni* is the most intimate, as a study of the activist Juma Xipaia and her husband, Special Forces ranger Hugo Loss; it offers less information about the context of environmental and climate devastation. It expects people to know or to be able to fill in much of that. To my surprise this works. It is less didactic: it shows more than it tells. One thing it shows that I have seen nowhere else is the violence of the state's methods of destroying the wildcat gold mining that has been so destructive in the Amazon, especially in Yanomami territory. This is disturbing to watch, but it also seems warranted--short of the state having fantastically more resources to end this mining by removing rather than destroying the mining equipment and infrastructure. Also very compelling and nuanced is the film's documentation of the complexities and tensions of Juma moving from outside to inside the government and then outside again. It's arguably not a perfect film, but it is urgent. It needs viewers and broad well-funded distribution here in the US, in Brazil, and beyond.

WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THE ATROCITIES THAT HAVE BEEN COMMITTED AGAINST THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA ARE JUST AS HEINOUS AS SLAVERY, THE HOLOCAUST, THE SPANISH INQUISITION, & KING LEOPOLD'S GENOCIDE AGAINST THE CONGOLESE PEOPLE. (AS WELL AS THE ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY MAO, POL POT, STALIN, LENIN, & TROTSKY). THIS DOCUMENTARY MAKES THAT CLEARLY- ESPECIALLY WHEN MS. XIPAIA STATES IN HER IMPASSIONED VOICE, "YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR CHILDREN MURDERED! YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR HOME INVADED!" I ALSO LOVED THE WAY THAT DIRECTOR RICHARD LADKANI & PRODUCERS ANITA LADKANI & LAURA NIX JUXTAPOSED THE SCENE WHERE MS. XIPAIA & HER SON WERE LOOKING AT THE MONITOR OF HER DEVELOPING UNBORN GIRL & LISTENING TO THE HEARTBEAT OF THE BABY GIRL WITH THE SCENE WHERE MS. XIPAIA HELD UP PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE INDIGENOUS CHILDREN WHO ARE FACING STARVATION DUE TO THE ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE MINERS WHO WERE GIVENFREE REIN BY EX-PRESIDENT BOLSANORO. THE JUXTAPOSITION OF THESE SCENES SHOWED THAT MS. XIPAIA HAS JUST AS MUCH LOVE FOR THESE CHILDREN AS SHE DOES FOR HER OWN CHILDREN. IT'S ALSO IMPORTANT TO CONTRAST THAT WITH THE SCENE WHERE A WORKER FOR THE MINERS MADE A RACIST REMARK ABOUT "F---ING INDIANS" BECAUSE IT SHOWED HOW THE MINERS DEHUMANIZED THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. I JUST HOPE THAT MS. XIPAIA, HER HUSBAND HUGO BOSS, & THE FILM MAKERS ARE REMEMBERED AT OSCAR TIME BECAUSE THIS IS ONE FILM THAT DEFIITELY DESERVES BEST DOCUMENTARY. THE OSCAR VOTERS HAVE OFTEN HAD A ODD REACTION TO DOCUMENTARIES. I STILL REMEMBER HOW THE OSCAR VOTERS PASSED ON GIVING BEST DOCUMENTARY TO "THE SORROW & THE PITY" & GAVE THE AWARD TO "THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLES"- A MOVIE ABOUT BUGS. I HOPE THAT THEY DON'T MAKE A SIMILAR MISTAKE THIS TIME!