Film by Sônia Bridi has unpublished images of Bruno and Dom – 06/01/2023 – Daily life

The Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, on the border of Brazil with Colombia and Peru, is home to the largest concentration of uncontacted indigenous people in the world and also holds traces of the murders of indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips, on June 5 last year.

It is an attempt to fill in the gaps in this story that Sônia Bridi tells in the documentary “Vale dos Isolados: The Assassination of Bruno and Dom”, which premieres on the Globoplay platform at 00:00 this Friday (2).

The production is the first directed by her, with photography by Paulo Zero and script by Cristine Kist. The film is part of “The Bruno and Dom Project – An Investigation into the Looting of the Amazon”, which brings together 16 journalistic vehicles and organizations from ten countries, including the Sheet. The initiative is spearheaded by Forbidden Stories, an entity dedicated to continuing the work of journalists murdered in the exercise of their craft.

The first scenes show Bruno’s friends, indigenous and non-indigenous, from Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples) and Univaja (Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley), back at the scene of the crime, in search of the duo’s belongings.

The findings, in cell phone memories, include some of the last images recorded by the indigenist and the reporter before death. These files, unpublished for the general public, were discovered by the Federal Police from the material delivered by the volunteers in the searches.

There were 100 days of film production, between the three trips Bridi and the team took. From the base, an inn in Atalaia do Norte (AM), the team traveled to seven different villages, such as those of the Marubo, Korubo and Kanamari peoples.

“It’s a strange feeling. We pass by the place where they were ambushed and killed, the community where the assassins lived and the Funai base”, describes the journalist.

The isolation in the valley is geographical, communication -lack of telephone and internet signal, a challenge for the film’s production- and also voluntary, in the case of isolated indigenous peoples.

That way of life is also at stake in Congress. The documentary premieres amid bill 490, approved in the Chamber on Tuesday (30). In addition to trying to establish a timeframe for the demarcation of indigenous lands, it makes contact with isolated peoples more flexible when there is a national interest.

“What is the right to enter a land occupied by indigenous people, who does it serve? For the indigenous people, we know that it is not”, says Sônia.

Working with isolated peoples was one of Bruno’s occupations, who asked for unpaid leave from Funai in 2019 and started working at Univaja. Going to the organization was an alternative to pressure from Funai led by Marcelo Xavier, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Xavier, two weeks ago, was indicted by the Federal Police for homicide with possible intent in the case of Bruno and Dom. The PF claims that he was aware of the risks faced by people working in Javari, but did not act in the face of these threats.

Bruno’s professional change was taken after an operation against mining in Javari, in September 2019, which culminated in the dismissal of a civil servant from a coordination position.

As for Dom Phillips, the Javari Valley was the object of research for a book. Part of the reporter’s notebooks were found in the mud by the search teams, as well as his professional license. This image, says Sônia, condenses the violence and premeditation of the crime.

“You, a journalist, see Dom’s journalist card taken out from under the layer of leaves and mud… Their death is so graphic that everyone was silent”, he says.

See the scene in the video below.

In the film, the persecution suffered by Bruno at Javari is highlighted by Beto Marubo, one of the Univaja leaders and a friend of the indigenist.

One of the major problems in the region is illegal fishing, which is also used to launder money from drug trafficking. A ferry on the border between Brazil and Peru is the site of Colombia’s operation, appointed as the mastermind behind the deaths of Bruno and Dom and also the indigenist Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, in 2019.

“We left it to go there on the day we were going to fly from Tabatinga to the south, because we didn’t want to give them a chance to know where we were and go after us”, explains Sônia.

Colombia, arrested, is represented by the same lawyers who ordered the murder of Dorothy Stang, in Anapu (PA), in 2005, which indicates, for the journalist, the need to investigate which interests are related in these cases.

In the film, the house of a riverside man, Raimundo da Costa, is also shown, a well-known warehouse and place where Bruno and Dom stayed.

The place is also the setting for a key episode recounted in the documentary with newly discovered images: the fisherman Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, known as Pelado and Raimundo’s nephew, passed by his uncle’s house twice, by boat, to tease Bruno by showing a shotgun.

Amarildo confessed to the murders along with Jeferson Lima.

If friends play a central role in the documentary, families, on the other hand, were absent from the production. They did not participate because they signed a contract with another project, but both, says Sônia, expressed support for the work.