A árvore

The Tree

Forum Expanded 2023

In October of 2018, a year of overwhelming political, personal, and existential transformations, I decided to start filming a diary. I wanted to free myself from cinematographic practice as a constant exercise of projection and representation, and find a living cinema that would reflect the extraordinary quotidian side of life, with everything that usually remains on the sidelines, on the edges of a film. Without scripts, without projections, the camera would become an accomplice to some moments of life that would remain stored on celluloid until the day they would be revealed – a kind of metabolism of the image, where the practice of filming would be nothing more than a vital metabolic exercise. The images would thus become a mere capture of energies – spectral, historical, emotional – in the form of visual representations.
A árvore is a ritual-film about my father – the artist, musician, and mystic of the forest – Guilherme Vaz, a man who lived and reflected on the frontier, on the fatal advance of modernity over the peoples of the earth, a man who wrote music instinctively, who thought of cinema as his “spiritual father” and, above all, whose lived life was his greatest work.

by Ana Vaz
with Guilherme Vaz, Ana Vaz Spain / Brazil 2022 Portuguese 21’ Colour

With

Guilherme Vaz
Ana Vaz

Crew

Director	Ana Vaz
Cinematography	Ana Vaz
Editing	Ana Vaz, Deborah Viegas
Music	Guilherme Vaz
Sound Design	Ana Vaz
Producer	Ana Vaz

Produced by

Azkuna Zentroa

Ana Vaz

Photos

Ana Vaz

Ana Vaz, born in 1986 in Brasilia, Brazil, is an artist, filmmaker, and founder of the in(ter)disciplinary collective COYOTE. Her film-poems are underpinned by experimental collages of images and sounds, discovered and produced, to reflect upon situations and contexts which are historically and geographically marked by narratives of violence and repression. Expansions or consequences of her films, her practice may also be embodied in writing, critical pedagogy, installations, film programs, or ephemeral events. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Kazuko Trust Award presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of artistic excellence and innovation in her moving-image work.

Filmography

2007 Sacris Pulso; 15 min. · Sacris Pulso; 15 min. 2012 Entre temps; 12 min. · Entre temps; 12 min. · Les mains, negatives; with Julien Creuzet, 15 min. · Les mains, negatives; with Julien Creuzet, 15 min. 2013 A idade da pedra; 30 min. · A idade da pedra; 30 min. 2014 Occidente; 15 min. · Occidente; 15 min. 2015 A Film, Reclaimed; with Tristan Bera, 19 Min. · A Film, Reclaimed; with Tristan Bera, 19 Min. 2016 Ha terra!; 12 min. · Ha terra!; 12 min. · Amérika: Bahía de las flechas; 8 min. · Amérika: Bahía de las flechas; 8 min. 2018 Olhe bem as montanhas; 30 min. · Olhe bem as montanhas; 30 min. · Amazing Fantasy; 3 min. · Amazing Fantasy; 3 min. · Atomic Garden; 8 min. · Atomic Garden; 8 min. 2019 Apiyemiyekî?; 28 min., Forum Expanded 2020 · Apiyemiyekî?; 28 min., Forum Expanded 2020 2020 Pseudosphynx; 9 min. · Pseudosphynx; 9 min. · 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird; 32 min., Forum Expanded 2021 · 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird · Pseudosphynx; 8 min. 2022 É Noite na América; 66 min. · A árvore

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023