Contact Cinema and Female Shamanism at Igarapé Omerê
Clarisse Alvarenga
The Oxford Handbook of Brazilian Cinema October 6, 2026 DOI: 10.1093/9780197612446.003.0031 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that Carelli's two films, read alongside the death of Tanaru, the "Man of the Hole," raise complex questions about how cinema is made and conceived in dialogue with the experience of Brazil's Indigenous peoples. |
Abstract
Abstract: This chapter revisits the films Corumbiara (2009) and Isolados de Corumbiara (The Isolated of Corumbiara, 2021), both directed by filmmaker Vincent Carelli, set in the Igarapé Omerê in the Brazilian Amazon and involving the Kanoê and Akuntsu peoples. The first film stages national society’s establishing contact with the Kanoê and Akuntsu, peoples who have survived previous extermination attempts. The second film, made with archival footage from the first, centers on a shamanic ritual, animated by the shaman Tiramantu’s use of angico seeds. This chapter seeks to connect the two works, considering an event that occurred after the films—the death of Tanaru, known as the “Man of the Hole”—and demonstrating how these situations raise complex issues that invite reflection on different ways of making and thinking about cinema in dialogue with the experience of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |