Deeper Viewing/First Thursday

Uýra: The Rising Forest (Uýra: A Retomanda da Floresta)
Directed by Juliana Curi

Thursday, October 3, 4 pm CINEMA+

Free

While traveling through the Amazon, Uýra shares ancestral knowledge with Indigenous youth to promote the significance of identity and place, threatened by Brazil’s oppressive political regime. Through dance, poetry, and stunning characterization, Uýra boldly confronts historical racism, transphobia, and environmental destruction, while emphasizing the interdependence of humans and the environment.

In 1980, the town of Manaus in the Brazilian state of Amazonas had a river running through its center, providing the community with an abundance of fresh water. However, officials began to encourage the dumping of garbage into the river which impacted the health of the community. Now, decades later the artist Uýra conducts a performance piece dressed as a river creature dying in the middle of the debris to the crowds above them.

Director Curi follows Uýra’s journey as it takes them into the lush forests of the Amazon and beyond, gathering a group of LGBT members together through cultural centers and riverside communities. They share ancestral knowledge with Indigenous youth in the Amazon to promote the significance of identity and place, threatened by Brazil’s far right oppressive political regime led by President Jair Bolsonaro and five centuries of severe colonial indigenous policies.

Through dance, poetry, and stunning characterization, Uýra confronts historical racism, transphobia, and environmental destruction, while emphasizing the interdependence of humans and the environment. 2022, Brazil/U.S., video, in Portuguese with English subtitles, 70 minutes.  Recommended for 16+

This event is a collaboration with POV, PBS’ award-winning nonfiction film series:  https://www.pbs.org/pov/

CINEMA+ with a post-screening discussion with Dr. Karl Swinehart, Associate Professor/Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Comparative Humanities, UofL and Simona Bertacco, Professor of Postcolonial and Translation Studies, Department of Comparative Humanities, UofL.