Film Para’í premieres during festival in Guarani village in SP

The feature film Para’í, by director Vinicius Toro, had a preview this Sunday (16) at Terra Indígena (TI) Jaraguá-Guarani, in Vila Jaraguá, northwest of São Paulo. The film, scheduled to open in theaters this Thursday (20), was shown in the early afternoon at the second edition of the Festival Yvy Porã Jaraguá é Guarani.

The feature, selected for several festivals, such as the 51st Festival of Brasília, the 22nd Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes and the 20th Festival of Rio de Janeiro, was recorded in the TI do Jaraguá and had active participation of indigenous people in the production and script.

“Everything that happened in this movie is our life. We continue like this, living, resisting, preserving this forest, taking care of these animals”, highlighted Sonia Ara Mirim, from the Guarani community of Jaraguá, who participated as an actress and screenwriter.

The film, which was shown under a tent inside an area of ​​Atlantic Forest, tells the story of two indigenous children who venture out to make some Guarani colored corn seeds germinate and grow.

On this journey, they come across many of the elements that mark the life of the indigenous community of Jaraguá: the struggle for land demarcation and the lack of space to plant; arson; the contrast between traditional indigenous and evangelical religions; and the appreciation of the Guarani language.

“When we make a film like this, it portrays our reality. It’s no use making a random movie. This is true, it happened. We have our way of life and it needed to be shown”, says Mirim.

She also highlights the difficulties for the recognition of her people. “Nothing is easy for us. There is always something that prevents the indigenous peoples here in Jaraguá from being seen as we are, prevents us from showing our culture. Many say that we are not indigenous, that this is a favela, and we had to show the opposite of that. We are always looking to show who we are.”

real themes

Director Vinicius Toro points out that, despite being a staged film, the feature incorporated a number of real themes that even occurred during the production of the film. “The day before we delivered the project, which we were looking for sponsorship, there was a fire and we went there to register it”, he says.

“This question of the churches [evangélicas] that are around, we started to incorporate in the development of the film. I had this initial idea of ​​being a film that dealt with real themes, but also being a staged film”.

The film is produced by Travessia Filmes and will be released in theaters by the distributor Descoloniza Filmes. The official trailer can be seen at youtube.

The Jaraguá Indigenous Land (TI) is still facing legal disputes for the definitive demarcation of land. In 2017, Ordinance 693 of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security reduced the size of the TI to 1.7 hectares, when the demarcation process indicated that the reserve should be 512 hectares. One injunctionthat same year, suspended the ordinance.