Under the tremor of images: politics and direct action on the Xavante lens

Abstract

This paper seeks to measure the use of indigenous audiovisual production as a strategic resource in the struggle for rights. We are interested in highlighting the determining presence of the camera as a recording device that oscillates as a political weapon, placing itself at the center of the conflict as an eyewitness. For this our analysis is based on two documentaries made by Xavante Divino Tserewahú. The first is the record of the direct confrontation between indigenous people of the Sangradouro community and police authorities of the municipality of Primavera do Leste, driven after the allegedly illegal arrest of a young man from the community. The second is a documentary about the 25th anniversary celebration of the Macuxi People’s struggle for the homologation of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, in Roraima.