I am Bemotire

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*Seeking funding

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The feature length documentary “I am Bemotire" will follow the steps of Bemotire, the son of a family of French settlers who lived near the forests of Brazilian Amazon in the 1920s. As a child, he was kidnapped by Kayapó Indians who patrolled the region fighting any invaders who dared to trespass the limits of their lands. He was raised as a warrior and named after a great Kayapó war leader who was ritually evoked in war songs: “I am Bemotire / this is my name / I am the representation of fear / I am the fear itself / I kill the enemy / I killed him like this ”. Naked, painted in black, wooden disk in his lower lip, he lived and died like a Kayapó, terrorizing enemy tribes, who feared him as a great warrior of the Metuktire ("those painted in black"). Following Bemotire's path from his kidnapping to his encounter with white explorers who made the first contact with his tribe in the 1950s, we will reflect on the transformation of that white boy into a black-painted Kayapó warrior.

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Director: Tiago Carvalho

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