Ascuri

ASCURI (Cultural Association of Indigenous Directors)

The Cultural Association of Indigenous Directors (ASCURI) is formed by young Guarani-Kaiowá and Terena, directors and indigenous cultural producers from Mato Grosso do Sul, with the objective of discussing alternatives to the predominant model of thinking and of making cinema in Latin America, seeking the way of strengthening the traditional way of life using tools of cinematographic language and communication technologies. ASCURI is part of the Cine Sin Fronteras workshop, held in the Condor Iquiña village in 2008, and coordinated by Quechua documentary filmmaker Ivan Molina, director of the then Escuela de Cine y Artes de La Paz (ECA, today IFAECA). Four years later, ASCURI is now a non-profit association. In addition to working in the creation of films and documentaries, the collective also dedicates itself to the organization of film shows, the production of films by young filmmakers, teaching and editing books, among them “Mosarambihára, sowers of good living”, the result of a training program for young Guarani and Kaiowá in 2016.

Among the main exhibitions and festivals in which they participate, are the Mostra Vemeuxá – Indigenous Audiovisual Territories, during the 51st Festival of Brasília, in 2018; Alakan, an exhibition held in the framework of the VII Latin American Cinema and Art Colloquium (COCAAL), in São Paulo, in 2019.

Among the shows organized by ASCURI are the 1st Cinematographic Cycle of Indigenous Themes – Nhande Tape Porã, at the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD), in Dourados (MS), in 2017, and the continuity editions of the 2016 Cine Sin Fronteras (La Paz – Bolivia) and 2016 in Niterói (RJ). And the recent launch during the Covid-19 pandemic of the Nativas Narrativas webseries, in partnership with the Coletivo Rede Cine Flecha, which aims to tell the indigenous perspectives regarding the pandemic, and is available on the collective’s website.

The audiovisual production ASCURI maintains proximity to the activity of traditional prayers, in Guarani – Nhanderu and Terena – Koixomuneti of the communities in which they operate, which are always present in the films, workshops and in the meetings they hold. This exchange of knowledge between the youngest and the oldest, according to the filmmakers, contributes to the narrowing of the relationship between generations, stimulating the understanding by the young indigenous people of their place in the socio-cultural and political constitution of the peoples to which they belong. The new media are understood by the collective as a tool for the fight for original rights and the guarantee of active indigenous participation in the discussion of topics such as the management of their territories, their environmental conservation, the use of their natural resources, and the development of food security policies, in addition to spiritual alignment with beings, constellations of this and other dimensions.

The ASCURI production, mostly documentary, is freely accessible, with a channel on the Youtube platform being maintained for its dissemination.