Secrets of the Tribe
Synopsis
The field of anthropology goes under the magnifying glass in this fiery investigation of the seminal research on Yanomami Indians. In the 1960s and ’70s, a steady stream of anthropologists filed into the Amazon Basin to observe this "virgin" society untouched by modern life. Thirty years later, the events surrounding this infiltration have become a scandalous tale of academic ethics and infighting.
The origins of violence and war and the accuracy of data gathering are hotly debated among the scholarly clan. Soon these disputes take on Heart of Darkness overtones as they descend into shadowy allegations of sexual and medical violation.
Director José Padilha brilliantly employs two provocative strategies to raise unsettling questions about the boundaries of cultural encounters. He allows professors accused of heinous activities to defend themselves, and the Yanomami to represent their side of the story. As this riveting excavation deconstructs anthropology’s colonial legacy, it challenges our society’s myths of objectivity and the very notion of “the other.”
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The Filmmakers
José Padilha Director
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. José Padilha earned B.A. in Business Economics at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro.
Padilha wrote, produced, and directed ELITE SQUAD, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008. In 2007, he also produced and directed the short documentary CHARCOAL For Live Earth, Al Gore's NGO.
In 2004, Padilha produced the awarded documentary ESTAMIRA, directed by Marcos Prado, his associate at Zazen Produções. ESTAMIRA won Best Documentary at the Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Karlovy Vary and Havana Film Festivals and received the Grand Prix in FID Marseille and the Human Rights International Film Festival of Nuremberg, as well as the FIPRESCI award at the International Film Festival of Vienna in 2005.
BUS 174 was his Padilha's theatrical direction. For this, he was honoured by the Director's Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. The film won both the Publics Choice for Best Documentary and the FIPRESCI Critics Award for Best Brazilian Feature Film at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival 2002. BUS 174 had its US premiere at Sundance in 2002 and its European premiere at Rotterdam Film Festival in 2003, where it won a special mention by the Amnesty International Jury. In the US, the film won the Best Documentary Grand Jury award at the Miami International Film Festival (2003), the Most Innovative Film award at the Chicago Documentary Film Festival (2003) and the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (2003).BUS 174 also won the Best International Premiere at the One World Media Awards in London, the Interfilm Academy award at the Munchen Film Festival (2003), the prize for Best Documentary at Mediawave in Hungary, and Best Documentary at the Copenhagen Film Festival. The film was also awarded Best Documentary at the Nuevo Cinema Latino Americano Festival in Havana and Emmy Awards (2005).
In addition to SECRETS OF THE TRIBE, Padilha is at work on HUNGER, another feature-length documentary currently in post-production.
Festivals & Awards
Sundance Film Festival
2010
Official Selection
Hot Docs International Film Festival
2010
Official Selection
Silverdocs Film Festival
2010
Official Selection
IDFA
2010
Official Selection
Sheffield Doc/Fest
2010
Official Selection
Denver International Film Festival
2010
Winner - Best Documentary
Reviews
“Anthropologists may travel to remote lands studying strange, complicated communities, but judging from SECRETS OF THE TRIBE, some of them could find just as much material by staying at school and investigating each other…Fascinating and full of juicy ethical squabbles.”
“In the world documentary section, one of the best is the new work by Brazil's José Padilha, who did the excellent BUS 174. His complex, shattering SECRETS OF THE TRIBE examines the effects that waves of cultural anthropologists have had on the Yanomami Indians of the Amazon basin, a society that had been totally isolated from nominal civilization.”
“Padilha’s expertly constructed film — which keeps shifting, deftly and almost dizzyingly, among irreconcilable perspectives — turns inconclusiveness into a strength.”