Corumbiara: They Shoot Indians, Don´t They?

A personal account of 20 years of video activism in Corumbiara, a municipality in western Brazil. In order to stop the destruction of the habitat of isolated Native Americans, their existence will have to be proven in court. Back in 1986, filmmaker Vincent Carrelli first got involved in a hunt for the remains of an Indian village, which had been wiped off the map by a landowner. Unfortunately, the tools that they found were insufficient to stand up in court. In the years that followed, Carrelli returned to the region on several occasions, convinced that the Native Americans lived there and determined to record this fact with his camera. The film documents the heartwarming contact between the researchers and a family of Canoé Indians, and contains unique footage of one of the last survivors of an unknown tribe. But the activists also must deal with disappointing defeats in the face of landowners, lumber merchants and farmers, and even instances of gruesome violence. Ultimately, the film also asks questions about the legitimacy of the hunt for footage. To what extent is it justified to invade the habitat of people who shun any attempt at contact - even if that invasion occurs with the intent to protect them from greater external aggression?