Science and spectacle: cinematographic records and practices on Brazilian indigenous peoples in the 1910s

Abstract

This text is based on the first film recordings of Brazilian indigenous peoples, produced or supported by the Rondon Commission between 1912 and 1915. Shown at conferences, movie theaters, and included in educational activities at the National Museum (RJ), the films became allies of a state project aimed at the compulsory integration of these peoples, considered “backward” and “without history,” into an ideal of nation that was being forged. By observing the context in which “Rondônia,” by Edgard Roquette-Pinto; “Os sertões do Mato Grosso,” by Luiz Thomaz Reis; and “O rio da Dúvida,” by Caroline Gentry and Anthony Fiala, were produced, as well as the repercussions of these works in the social environment, I highlight the colonizing gaze imposed on indigenous peoples and their cultures. Located between scientific interest, civilizing propaganda and popular spectacle, the films updated the idealized image of indigenous people, originating from the 19th century, and left traces that, even today, demand investigation.