Waters of the Pastaza (2022)

Waters of the Pastaza, 2022 — Inês T. Alves, Portugal (61′)

Waters of the Pastaza makes us reflect on our way of life and confronts our prejudices about “otherness”. From a decolonial perspective, it shows us the daily lives of the children of a village who live in symbiosis with untamed nature and who, alone and without fear of the animals and insects that inhabit the Amazon, look after each other, hunt, feed, play and go to school. Throughout the film, we inevitably question the absence of parents – where are the adults? The answer is given to us at the end of the film, making us realise our compromised gaze and the strangeness we feel towards a culture and society organised on the basis of community. Mutual aid ensures survival in an environment that Werner Herzog already characterised in Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams (1982) as prehistoric, disorderly, vile and deadly.

The film thus presents us with a way of life (and an entire philosophy and identity) based on collaboration, as opposed to the typically “Western” organisation of society. A counterpoint which is not present in images, but whose images of the Amazon constantly conjure up this idea in our imagination. Thus, we are forced to compare ourselves and reflect on our society centred on individualism (in its neoliberal sense) and based on competitiveness, production and consumption, with social and environmental consequences. These primacies also shape the education system for children (in favour of specialisation, technology and productivity), whose fast pace of life follows the adult agenda, making it impossible to have greater harmony and contact with the natural world at a “more organic”, non-artificial pace.

* Session with the director Inês T. Alves

Lucky Star — Cineclube de Braga
Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library
R. de São Paulo 1, 4700-042 Braga

Tickets:

General public: €3
Cineclube members: Free entry
Students and BLCS users: €1

More information at facebook.com/cinebraga