New Era

Residents of the Huni Kuin village of São Joaquim, on the river Jordão, collaborate in making a record their daily lives on video. New Era shows methods of fishing, cutting rubber trees, making hammocks and handcrafts, and religious observance. Augustinho, village shaman and patriarch, his wife and father-in-law, remember the fetters of the rubber plantations and talk about how things have changed. The Huni Kuin practice a mixture of white people's customs and their own; we see a soccer match against a white team, accompanied by much cheering and heckling, and trip to a town upriver includes buying items with a debit card. With their land demarcated, the Hunikui can once again teach their traditions to their children, but while Brazil is celebrating "Indian's day," the Indians themselves are keenly aware of what has been changed or lost in their culture as a result of contact with whites.