I'm a Brazilian film director and artist. Through images, I seek to research and approach contemporary languages for creating non-hegemonic stories and imagery. I'm a Latin American woman living in the United States, and a white woman living in Brazil. This contradictory social location has allowed me to deeply recognize the structural system that has historically privileged me, while simultaneously producing inequalities.

Angela Davis, Djamila Ribeiro, Ailton Krenak and Daniel Munduruku were master-authors who sculpted my worldview. With them, I've learned that, as a director and artist, I make choices that contribute to the creation of an imagery repertoire and a work culture. And that anti-racist and equal rights practices should be a commitment of all those who seek ethics in their existence.

João de Jesus Paes Loureiro, a great reference of Amazonian poetry, said that the enchantment of the Amazon springs from the bottom of the Rio Negro. A river of oceanic dimensions, which weaves and feeds the entire state, not only with food from the forest and water but with its sophisticated mythology and imagery.

Translating the imagery of the Amazon and the indigenous worldview into contemporary socio-political non-fiction filmmaking served as the creative foundation guiding and informing all our narratives and aesthetic choices. We couldn't approach this story with Cartesian, linear, Eurocentric perspectives. We realized during the research and filming process that poetry and metaphor can have a powerful impact when addressing sociocultural issues. And that we have at our disposal images that break through the false segmentation that divides art films and social films, as well as having the potential to challenge a world so material, rational, and also colonial.

Another key point in this film is that Uýra, besides being the protagonist of the film, also signs the authorship of the story and co-production, thus blurring the line that insists on dividing filmmakers as subjects and protagonists as objects. Uýra was a central part of all creative, narrative, and production choices, and the strength of this co-creation is one of the pillars that sustain our film.

- JULIANA CURI, Director