‘The Territory’ Protagonist Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau On His Experience Making The Documentary And Fight To Save His Indigenous People’s Land
15.01.2023 - 01:23
/ deadline.com
For young Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau, the distant chattering of a buzzsaw sends an ominous signal. It’s the sound of his people’s land in the Brazilian rainforest being chewed up by illegal invaders.
The Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Territory, directed by Alex Pritz, shows how Bitaté and members of his Indigenous tribe, the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, are attempting to fend off loggers, miners and squatters devouring huge tracts of the Amazon. Among their only means of defense is media attention to their plight. Without it, their territory will continue to disappear.
Bitaté spoke with us through an interpreter from an Uru village in Brazil’s state of Rondônia.
DEADLINE: What has it been like for you to be the protagonist of an Oscar-contending documentary that’s been seen around the world?
BITATÉ URU WAU WAU: I feel honored. It brings to the forefront the fight of my people. It displays for the world the situation we live in. We know that the challenge that we face — that we have always faced in our territory — is being represented now to the world beyond Brazil. People are talking about it. So, I feel very good about that.
DEADLINE: When the filmmakers first approached you about making a documentary, what were your thoughts? And how did you become convinced they would tell your story along with the story of the Uru in a way that would do justice to you?
BITATÉ: At first, it was a big thing for us to digest: Americans coming — what do they want to do here? Throughout the colonization decades, we learned to be greatly concerned about this. And we wanted to know, what do they want from us? So, we had a number of conversations, three sit-downs where we talked with Alex [Pritz], with the producer Gabriel [Uchida], and our community.