EXCLUSIVE: New York-based arthouse distributor KimStim has acquired North American rights to feature-doc The Falling Sky, about the threat to the existence of the Amazonian Yanomami people, ahead of its screening in DOC NYC next month.
The immersive and poetic film centers on iconic shaman Davi Kopenawa and the Yanomami community. It is based on the book of the same title by Kopenawa and French anthropologist Bruce Albert and is co-directed by Eryk Rocha & Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha.
Narrated by Kopenawa, the doc traces the preparations of his Indigenous community of Watorikɨ as it engages in a funeral rite known as the Reahu, which is a collective effort to hold up the sky and prevent it from falling. This ceremony also galvanizes the community in its battle to defend their homeland from illegal gold mining.
KimStim’s co-president Ian Stimler negotiated the deal with China-based international sales agent Rediance.
The film is a Brazilian-Italian co-production between Aruac Filmes and Stemal Entertainment with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with Les Films d’Ici, with the participation of the Hutukara Yanomami Association.
The film world premiered in the Cannes Film Festival’s parallel section Directors’ Fortnight in May and will play in DOC NYC’s Kaleidoscope Competition.
The Yanomami lived in relative isolation until the 1970s, when the construction of the North Perimeter highway across their land by the military dictatorship of the time exposed them to the so-called civilized world.
The arrival of the route brought with it common diseases – which were deadly for the community as it had no immunity – as well as thousands of miners prospecting for gold.
The community enjoyed brief respite in the 1990s following the creation of the Yanomami Park protecting the land, which led to the expulsion of the miners.
The Yanomami people found themselves under threat again under Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019 to 2022 presidency. Openly against Indigenous communities, he stifled state support programs and also encouraged the commercial exploitation of their land which led to deforestation, rising poverty rates and the murders of a number of Indigenous activists.
In The Falling Sky, Rocha and Carneiro da Cunha allow the Yanomami to tell the story in their own words, highlighting the resilience of the ancient community and showcasing the natural wonder of the world they are fighting to protect.
The doc is Rocha’s tenth feature film, and his third time at Cannes, where he previously won the L’Oeil d’Or Award for Cinema Novo in 2016. Co-director Carneiro da Cunha is a Brazilian artist, theater director, performer, filmmaker and environmental art activist who has worked for more than a decade with the Brazilian Amazon.