A imagem como arma: a trajetória da cineasta indígena Patrícia Ferreira Pará Yxapy

Abstract

This research study aims to outline the trajectory of indigenous film-maker Patrícia Ferreira Pará Yxapy. Patrícia belongs to the Mbyá-Guarani ethnic group and is currently regarded as the most relevant female figure in Brazilian indigenous filmmaking. I attempt to understand her trajectory from the standpoint of the relations she establishes with images to contribute with research on indigenous women and filmmakers and, hence, to understand the paths available for a female indigenous filmmaker in Brazil. I employ audiovisual methods to verify the passage from the representation of an ‘indian image’ – in view of representations brought forth by stereotypical non-indigenous policies – towards the ‘indigenous gaze’. In other words, by focusing on a self-represented and political image as well as on filmmaking from the standpoint of a shared gaze, repertoires, and her own experiences, Patrícia becomes the leading figure of her claims. Therefore, her work opposes the apparent passiveness which is often assigned to the imagery production relation active/man and passive/woman. She distances herself from a romanticized and exotic view (‘of the other’) through appropriations of her discourses, hence performing her own artistic agency in the production of a female indigenous cinematography. There is a tension between borders and their discursive possibilities which have originated from the appropriation of audiovisual technologies that make up hegemonic stances. It is based on this rupture that I carry out an ethnographic experience of video letters, i.e. exchanged videographic messages about a wide range of topics. In this project, they exist between the two of us to show our relationship through images and sounds. In Patrícia’s own words: ‘what I put out used to be inside me’.