Documentary film: We Fight For This Land: Ka’apor and Quilombola Communities in Brazil (62”, 2024)
Directors: Cahal McLaughlin and Siobhán Wills
Quilombo and Indigenous Ka’apor communities in the Amazonian state of Maranahão, Brazil, are facing multiple forms of ecoviolence (the intersection between human exploitation and the destruction of nature), from cattle and soya farmers taking over their lands to structural and political violence against them at the hands of the police and state government systems working in favour of landowners.
This documentary film follows the lives of two communities who are resisting such violence
and attempting to retain their traditional, and more sustainable, life systems. The Quilombola community – descendants of escaped slaves – in Boa Hora3/Manorama have
been living off the land for generations. A newly-arrived cattle farmer has encroached
on their land, using armed hitmen as back-up, forcing the community to move further into
the forest.
The Ka’apor Indigenous community have been resisting settler violence since the
beginning of colonization and recently have been reorganizing to adapt to land-grabbing
tactics in their area. Despite Federal legal commitments to their status, at a local state level they face ongoing ecoviolence in the form of assassinations of their leaders and
land-grabbing by local farmers.
The filmmakers used participatory practices to prepare, record, edit, and agree on
exhibition. Here is a link to versions in Portuguese, Spanish and English:
https://itstayswithyou.com/ecowars/