The Kayapo: Indians of the Brazilian Rainforest

(60 min.) 1994 [1987] (52 min.)

Directed and Produced by Michael Beckham

Life changed dramatically for the fiercely independent Kayapo when gold was discovered on their land in 1982. The Amazon was opened up for prospecting and thousands of Brazilians invaded their homeland, turning it into one of the largest gold mines in the world. The Kayapo were forced to adapt and become “businessmen” or see their traditional way of life destroyed. Like any businessman visiting the city to check on his finances, Utay, a chief from one of the villages, walks into a modern bank with his briefcase—wearing his body paint and feathers. A chief from another village reminds the younger members of the closely knit tribe of their cultural identity and exhorts them to resist the temptations brought into the forest by the Brazilians. The mines of Kayapo land are policed by warriors with war-clubs, and with the wealth earned from the mines they charter planes to spot illegal prospecting from above.