POV: Uýra: The Rising Forest

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published September 22, 2023 at 11:58 AM PDT

Uýra, wearing a silver headwrap and a high collar of long green fronds stands in the center of the frame with only head and shoulders visible. Their face is painted white, yellow and orange, lips are colored blue and they wear long false eyelashes and light blue colored contact lenses. Their shoulders are adorned with black geometric tattoos and an orange and green beaded necklace hangs downward in the middle of their chest.Surrounded by lush green forest Uýra stares outward to the upper left past the end of a stick dangling feathers that juts out from the left.

Premieres Monday, Sept. 25, 2023 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS App

Multi Emmy® Award-winning series, POV, illuminates Indigenous contemporary visual artist Uýra in director Juliana Curi’s feature documentary debut, “Uýra: The Rising Forest.” The lyrical and eye-popping film follows Uýra as they travel through the Amazon forest on a journey of self-discovery using performance art and ancestral messages to teach Indigenous youth the significance of identity and place, and how to confront structural racism and transphobia in Brazil.

UÝRA – The Rising Forest (UÝRA – A Retomada da Floresta) [2022] | Official Trailer

In 1980, the town of Manaus in the Brazilian state of Amazonas had a river running through its center, providing the community with an abundance of fresh water. However, officials began to encourage the dumping of garbage into the river which impacted the health of the community. Now, decades later the artist Uýra conducts a performance piece dressed as a river creature dying in the middle of the debris to the crowds above them.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Surrounded by crumbling buildings of brick, concrete, windows and green ivy, a figure strikes a pose with arms held up, palms visible and faces the viewer. Their body is painted green and strewn with long dried grass that covers the left arm and part of the chest. Their face, partially obstructed by a large green leaf drawn over the eyes, is painted white; only the nose, mouth and chin are visible. The blue sky looms overhead, calling attention to the dramatic architectural pointed feature sitting atop the center of the building.

Director Curi follows Uýra’s journey as it takes them into the lush forests of the Amazon and beyond, gathering a group of LGBT members together through cultural centers and riverside communities. They share ancestral knowledge with Indigenous youth in the Amazon to promote the significance of identity and place, threatened by Brazil's far right oppressive political regime led by president Jair Bolsonaro and five centuries of severe colonial indigenous policies.

Uýra is pictured under dried palm fronds situated on the right of the frame with head and part of the left shoulder visible. They wear a brightly colored floral pattern top with a thin necklace of black and white beads. With eyes closed and head covered in a hat made of sticks, a paintbrush is held in their right hand capturing the motion of a green line being painted down the left side of their face as the left hand juts out into the foreground just slightly out of focus.

Through dance, poetry, and stunning characterization, Uýra confronts historical racism, transphobia, and environmental destruction, while emphasizing the interdependence of humans and the environment. Visually stunning—with impeccable cinematography by Thiago Moraes ‘Quadrado’—“Uýra: The Rising Forest," blurs the lines between documentary and fiction, showing that it's possible to address Brazil's structural violence while honoring the poetic aesthetic and enchantment of the Amazonian territory.

Occupying the center of the frame, a close up of a person whose face has been painted with blue make up and red lipstick and wears a headdress made of wood and twine. Their eyes and mouth are closed and they are surrounded by the lush green forest with dappled light streaming in.

Filmmaker Quote:

“We could not approach this story with cartesian and linear perspectives,” said Director Juliana Curi. “We realized during the investigation process and filming that poetry and metaphor can have a powerful impact when we talk about socio-cultural issues. And, that this story has the power to break with the false segmentation that divides art films and social justice.”

“‘Uýra: The Rising Forest’ has already traveled to indigenous and riverside communities in the Amazon, has been shown in more than 35 film festivals around the world, and now reaches POV, one of the most relevant a communication channel in the world that supports films that can promote social and political change as they dismantle foundational myths that support the homophobic, transphobic and racist mechanisms in our society."

Become a KPBS sponsor

Thiago Moraes

American Documentary

Uýra, a brown-skinned indigenous artist sits crossed legged on the forest ground which is covered with broken sticks and other natural debris. Shirtless and seated in profile in front of a mirror, with arms resting on knees, their skin reveals a smattering of tattoos across the visible right arm. Their head is tilted to the ground as if surveying the various bottles of paint and makeup that are spread across the ground. Uýra's figure is enveloped by the dense forest of green leafy trees that encircle them.

Film Awards:

“Uýra: The Rising Forest,” made its world premiere at Frameline46: The San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival in 2022, where it won the Audience Award For Best Documentary. It won Best Documentary at the New Filmmakers LA Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award at NewFest’s 34th Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, the Special Programming Award for Freedom at the 2022 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, the Jury Prize at London Film Week, Best Feature Documentary at the 2023 One World Media Awards in the United Kingdom, and was named the Best Indigenous Feature at the 2022 BendFilm Festival.

A reflection of Uýra's face is visible as they apply makeup before a mirror. The mirror's frame is golden brown wood and stands out against the dark green of the forest. In the foreground we see the right side of Uýra's face from the back, the right hand holds a long slender brush. From the reflection, viewers see Uýra brush makeup to the left eyebrow, the left eye is open wide staring intently into the mirror while the right hand obscures part of the face. Their face is dusted with a light coat of white paint, a nosering hangs in the septum and their black nailed fingers sport rings, a beaded bracelet visible on the left wrist.

Festival Press Raves:

[an]“intricate weaving of environmental activism, indigeneity, performance art, queerness and transness.”– Jim Gilles, The Hollywood Reporter

“'Uýra: The Rising Forest' blurs the lines and boundaries that divide the documentary and fiction, as we are transported to the ancestral Amazonian enchanted world.”–Brian Bromberger, Bay Area Reporter

A close up of brown-skinned person with head slightly tilted back and eyes clasped shut while smoke billows around them. Hands are raised in front of their face as if smoking; the left hand clutches an object with orange yarn danging down, the right hand features two rings and partially obscures the object. The background features an interior space with blue walls.

An Exhibition:

Works by Uýra are currently being shown at a solo exhibit at the Currier Museum of Art. Uýra uses organic elements (such as foliage, bark, fibers, plumage, and natural dyes) to create elaborate costumes that blur conventional separations between humans, animals, and plants. The hybrid creatures and performance freely move between the forest and the city, ultimately commenting on the impact of anthropocentrism and industrialization.

Situated within a dark space a person covered in yellow paint squats down in a pool of light, the right knee is touching the ground, the left knee is bent and arm rest at the side. Their eyes appear closed and painted over with black circles, a large branch covered with leaves juts out from behind the figure to loom overhead, their neck is adorned with long pointed pale green leaves. The ground is covered with grayish dirt, pebbles, sticks and leaves, reflecting the light.

Watch On Your Schedule:

“Uýra: The Rising Forest” will be available for streaming concurrently with broadcast through Dec. 24, 2023 on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.

A face peers out from behind a dark brown tree trunk with finger tips touching the tree. Though the face is partially obscurred we see a left eye which is beset with a red contact lens gazeing out towards the right side of the frame, their nose is painted black and closed lips colored a dark red, cheek and chin shaded orange. A dense mass of dark green foiliage with some light streaming in surrounds the face.

Credits:

A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), Peril and Promise, a public media initiative from The WNET Group, and POV. The director is Juliana Curi and the producers are João Henrique Kurtz, Juliana Curi, Lívia Cheibub, and Martina Sönksen. The co-producer is protagonist Uýra Sodoma. Juliana Curi and Martina Sönksen are the writers and Thiago Moraes ‘Quadrado’ is the cinematographer. The executive producers are Lívia Cheibub, João Henrique Kurtz, and Erika Dilday, Justine Nagan, and Chris White for American Documentary.

“After watching Juliana Curi's, 'Uýra: The Rising Forest,' all of us on the American Documentary team knew it was something special,” said Erika Dilday, Executive Director, American Documentary and Executive Producer, POV and America ReFramed. “The film's cinematic brilliance is breathtaking. Juliana's emotional intelligence in capturing the intersectionality between queerness, the environment, indigenous youth culture, mentorship and performance art is unmatched. This is a story that we know will transfix our audiences. At a time when misinformation and anti-LGBTQ sentiment has been in headlines across the U.S., it is more important than ever that we put front-and-center stories by and about non-binary artists."

Uýra, a trans-Indigenous artist, reclines on a throne made of various recycled materials as they sail down a river in a performance of "Priscilla: Queen of the Amazon." They wear a vinyl headwrap, with a green rippled fan framing their head, and hold a wooden staff. Their face is painted in vibrant colors of red, yellow, white, and blue, and their body is adorned with geometric tattoos.

POV: Uýra: The Rising Forest

Tags