Juunt Pastaza entsari

Waters of Pastaza | Die Kinder vom Río Pastaza
“Imagination, instead of knowledge; play, instead of work; totality, instead of separation.” (Agostinho da Silva)

Monkeys shriek from the treetops above, while the undergrowth chirps, trills and rustles without pause. Against the ceaseless aural backdrop of the rainforest, in colourful T-shirts and rubber boots, a group of Indigenous Achuar children set off to find bananas and other fruits. Playful yet self-reliant, they move through the endless green lushness, machetes in hand. Along the Pastaza River on the border between Ecuador and Peru, they spend their days hunting and fishing, cooking, swinging from vines, spinning home-made tops on the solar panels in their village, or gathered around a smartphone watching videos. With a calm, quiet gaze, Inês T. Alves follows the close-knit collective as they live a life in harmony with the environment.
by Inês T. Alves Portugal 2022 Spanish 62’ Colour Documentary form empfohlen ab 6 Jahren

Crew

Director Inês T. Alves
Cinematography Inês T. Alves
Editing Inês T. Alves
Sound Design Virgílio Oliveira, Giorgio Gristina
Production Manager Julia Alves
Producers Ico Costa, Inês T. Alves

Inês T. Alves

Born in Portugal in 1987, she participated in the Crossways in Cultural Narratives master’s programme at the universities of Lisbon, Santiago de Compostela and Bergamo. She also studied documentary film at the University of the Arts London on a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship. Alongside her work as a filmmaker, she develops film workshops for various communities and age groups. Her short documentary Around Corners won the New Cinema award at the Porto/Post/Doc festival. Juunt Pastaza entsari is her debut feature film.

Filmography

2013 Uma vida mais simples (A Simpler Life); medium-length documentary 2018 No ângulo das ruas (Around Corners); medium-length documentary 2020 Ramerrame; short film 2022 Juunt Pastaza entsari (Waters of Pastaza); documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022