Piripkura 2017

The last two surviving members of the Piripkura people, a nomadic tribe in the Mato Grasso region of Brazil, struggle to maintain their indigenous way of life amidst the region’s massive deforestation. Living deep in the rain forest, Pakyî and Tamandua live off the land relying on a machete, an ax, and torch lit in 1998. Jair Candor, a coordinator with the Brazilian Foundation for Indigenous People, made contact in 1989 and arranged for protected status which must be renewed every two years. As time runs short, Candor, and the camera team, trek deep into the uninhabited region to find traces of the men as the systemic violence used against indigenous Amazon people is revealed, a situation likely to become more perilous with Brazil’s newly elected President.