While the name Katahirine seems like it could be for an observatory or some ambitious outer space project, it is rather the name of the first audiovisual network created and run by Indigenous women in Brazil. In the language of the Manchineri people native to Brazil’s state of Acre, Katahirine means “constellation.” It was chosen by the collective because it implies plurality, the gathering of voices from many territories under one platform. Each filmmaker shining with camera in hand, together they are discovering the possibilities of filmmaking, an art that some years ago would have been impossible to practice in regions far from Brazil’s big cities. But as mobile phones, digital cameras and audiovisual equipment become more accessible, filmmaking today is part of the lives of dozens of Indigenous women across Brazil. There are 60 members of Katahirine – Rede Audiovisual de Mulheres Indígenas working on their own productions, including fiction and documentaries, filming the reality inside their communities from the north to the south of Brazil. For the time being, the Pantanal is the only region not filmed by a member of the network. But this could change soon, according to Mari Corrêa, filmmaker and project founder. Corrêa also created Instituto Catitu, which provides funding for Rede Katahirine. She has been developing audiovisual training programs for Indigenous peoples for 30 years — a story that began with workshops she gave in the Xingu Indigenous Park as part of the Video in Villages (Vídeo nas Aldeias) project. Corrêa had always…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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