Multiple Amazons to be showcased at the II Pan-Amazonian Film Festival
Thirteen short films and eight feature films with diverse themes will be screened, and the program includes two discussion panels. All programming is free.
Bringing to the cinema screen an overview of the perspectives that compose the plurality of the Amazon is the goal of the II Pan-Amazonian Film Festival, which will be held in Belém from November 11 to 16 at Cine Líbero Luxardo. Thirteen short films and eight feature films with diverse themes will be screened, along with two discussion panels. All programming is free.
The opening will be on Tuesday, November 11, at 7 PM, with two films from Pará: the award-winning short Boiuna, by Adriana de Faria, winner of three Kikitos at this year's Gramado Festival (Best Direction, Best Actress, and Best Cinematography), and the feature film Não haverá mais história sem nós, by Priscila Brasil.
Starting Wednesday (12), the sessions will take place daily from 4 PM, with debates and screenings of shorts and features extending into the night. Among the highlights are titles never before seen in Brazil, such as La Fortaleza (Venezuela), Kaawaï Na Ana, la levée du deliu (French Guiana), and Rio Rojo (Colombia), as well as productions from Bolivia, Ecuador, and the nine states of the Legal Amazon.
The II Pan-Amazonian Film Festival is organized by Rizoma Audiovisual, the Inter-State Consortium of the Legal Amazon, and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), with sponsorship from Open Society and support from the Government of Pará, through the Cultural Foundation of Pará (FCP) and the State Secretariat of Culture (Secult).
Amazonian Narrative - For curator Bruno Vilella, the proposal was to work with productions from the Amazonian audiovisual chain itself. “Nothing from outside, especially because the cinema produced today is much more reflective and decolonial. We have stopped making that distant cinema or even denying the cultural issues of the Amazon. That’s why we chose films that reflect other ways of living, thinking, and feeling the region,” he explains.
The films in the Festival present varied themes that reveal both the ancestral and mythological Amazon as well as the urban Amazon, experienced by more than 70% of the region's inhabitants. Curator Gustavo Soranz adds that “Amazon now: originality and ontological diversity. This is our concept. We seek to showcase recent productions made between 2020 and 2025, born in a time of great transformations regarding existing and imagining the Amazons. We invite the audience to see this ontological diversity: different perspectives, languages, and viewpoints that make up contemporary pan-Amazonian cinema.”
Ursula Vidal, Secretary of State for Culture and coordinator of the Thematic Chamber of Culture of the Legal Amazon Consortium, highlights the importance of the Festival precisely during the COP30 taking place in Belém. “We are bringing powerful, diverse cinematic production that is deeply connected to our identities. The Festival opens, at this very opportune moment of COP30, a wide window for immersion in our stories and narratives, stemming from the extraordinary creative capacity of producers, directors, actors, and screenwriters from the 9 states and 8 countries of the region. Translating into fiction and documentary the dizzying pulse of a contested Amazon in the symbolic and political field is a mission that the audiovisual sector has been fulfilling with immense vigor,” she states.
The complete program is available on Instagram @mostrapanamazonicadecinema
