In 1996, intrepid Swedish freelance journalist Erling Söderström was part of an expedition into the Amazon jungle with Brazilian ethnographer and social activist, Sydney Possuelo. They were trying to make “first contact” with the Korubo Indians.
Filmmaker Nathan Grossman (I Am Greta) had access to the footage of that trip, and it features extensively in the first half of his new documentary Amazomania (sold by Autlook and screening in the main competition at CPH:DOX.)
Thirty years on, the footage makes uncomfortable viewing. The expedition is successful on its own terms. The Korubo Indians are prised out into the open. Söderström is there with his cameras to record it all but, from today’s vantage point, the encounter seems awkward and exploitative. There’s a sense that the explorers are forcing their way into the lives of their Korubo subjects when they might have been far better advised to leave them alone.
“I met him [Söderström] in 2021 so this is a film that has been six years in the making.”
Söderström has a “very extensive” archive from this and subsequent trips to the Amazon. Grossman set up a contract that allowed him full creative control of the material, large parts of which had never been used or digitalised.
“It’s not a film that I have done in collaboration with Erling. It’s my film and my point of view of both this era in the 1990s; of his work in the 2000s, and of the current situation.”
He adds that he had “zero per cent knowledge of how the events would play out.”
The latter part of the documentary follows Söderström as he returns to the Amazon in 2023 He soon discovers that he is not nearly as fondly remembered by the Korubo people as he had expected. In fact, several are now asking for payment for all that footage he shot of them.
“It [the documentary] is a time capsule…it’s a film about this microcosmos – the Korubo, this specific event [the first contact] but it’s also a story about how themes and structures have developed through out these 30 years. Today, the way we work with the Korubo is so different from what it was back then. There is…a more mediated and structured contact, where we present what we want to do and they [the Korubo] negotiate directly with journalists and also tourists.”
Grossman was making the film in 2022/2023 when the right-wing Bolsonaro regime was still in power in Brazil. “It was a very tough period to be working with the government, officials and Brazilian authorities but it was clear the Korubo were interested in collaborating and inviting us to join to create this film,” the director recalls.
The director was co-editing with Jordana Berg, the veteran Brazilian editor known for her work with Petra Costa on films like Apocalypse In The Tropics and The Edge Of Democracy. “She is one of the best editors in the world. It was a long process to figure out what was the most intuitive way to relate to the development of events…”
Viewers tend to have the same complex reaction to the film. They are “intrigued and have this lust for adventure” as they watch the rousing 1996 footage of the expedition in search of the missing tribe. But then, as they reflect on what they’ve just been seeing, they become far more questioning and self-critical.
“We try to include the audience into the mindset of 1996 media culture – and then you can reflect back and look at how your lust for seeing adventure developed when you hear the developments from the modern day,” the director explains.
Whatever his reservations about the 1996 expedition, Grossman can’t hide his admiration for the charismatic Sydney Possuelo who has spent his lifetime trying to protect the rights of isolated tribes.
“There are few people within Brazilian governance who have made as big a difference,” he says of the former head of Funai (the Brazilian governmental protection agency for Amerindian interests and their culture). “It is incredible to be able to watch his work this closely as you can when you access such a big archive.”
Possuelo didn’t want to participate directly in Amazomania (“he’s getting old and he had other projects”) but Grossman credits him for anticipating the problems that the initial 1996 encounter with the Korubo people would later bring.
“It is super intriguing to look in the mind of this man throughout this specific expedition of the 1990s – and the doubts he feels around this…in his interview in the archive, he even says himself that it will take decades to know how these events will play out.”
The mutual misunderstanding and distrust between the expedition members and the Korubo people became apparent years later when it emerged that, during that first supposedly joyful meeting, the tribespeople had actually been trying to poison their uninvited visitors.
“We all talk about these sliding doors moments. Of course, when you look at this situation, it is clear that things could have turned out very differently,” Grossman reflects on an encounter which was regarded at the time as a triumph by the westerners. “It shows what enormous risks there are in relationship to these contact events. It’s also why today these kind of situations should be avoided to the largest extent we can.”
There are an estimated 200 indigenous groups still living in voluntary isolation – but their existences are becoming ever more precarious thanks to climate change and environmental degradation. As for the Korubo group, around 150 survive – a tiny population. “It’s very, very small…”
Grossman has been editing the last parts of the film with Korubo collaborators. “That was a wonderful experience and they were very proud of how the events were portrayed and how their arguments were crafted in relation to Erling.”
As for Söderström (Erling) himself, you might assume he would be upset by the film. After all, it reveals the deeply ambivalent feelings that the Korubo people have toward him today and their desire for financial reparation. However, the Swedish journalist still admires aspects of the documentary.
“He watched the film just a few weeks ago. It wasn’t the best film he had ever seen in relation to what he thought, but he thought the description of the events was acceptable.”
In his film, Grossman takes a probing and quizzical look at attitudes and behaviour of the media in the mid 90s. He hopes that in 30 years time, that his own work will face similar scrutiny.
“And I hope Korubo will have access to their own archive and will be able to tell their story just as they want. Legally, they would not be able to do that today…or they would if they licensed it from Erling!”
Amazomania was produced by Cecilia Nessen and made through B-Reel Films, and is one of six European documentaries selected for the EUROPE! Docs programme, devised by EFP and CPH:DOX.
