This is a look at Juma Xipaia the first woman elected as chief of an indigenous group from the Amazon. The film follows Xipia over several years as she works to get a minstry set up in the Brazilian government which will protect the people living there and the jungle itself.
Okay, full disclosure, my reaction to this film was affected by the fact that I have seen five similar documentaries on the indigenious groups attempting to protect themselves and the jungles. I mention this because the in watching YANUNI I was comparing it to the other films. I was very aware I was not seeing this in a vacuum.
While the film is largely about Juma Xipaia and the poltical fight, there are sections that cover other films like WE ARE GUARDIANS and FALLING SKY. As a result for me the interesting parts were those just on Xipaia. This was something I hadn't seen in similar films, or even in othe political bios, what it is like to be just a person.
As good as much of this film is, the film has a couple of problems that keep it from being great. The first is that the film frequently seems to be more interested in giving us great images. Everything, even when protests go wrong, look picture perfect. Its so perfect you have to wonder if this is a documentary or a narrative.
That's something that raises it's head with too many sequences, particularly the ones with Xipaia and her husband, and that is the sequences seem to be staged. Even if the moments are genuine you can feel the fimmakers positioning everyone so the shot is perfect. As a result the film feels less than a true documentary but a hagiographic puff piece. This film shouldn't be this perfect.
My quibbles do not mean that the film is bad. It's not it's just not great.
Worth a look.
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