November 2006

Vincent Carelli is a documentary film director and editor, and founder and co-director of Vídeo nas Aldeias/Video in the Villages (VNA). VNA works closely with indigenous communities to provide training in video production, providing annual workshops for Native videomakers, equipment access and post-production support, and distributing the works internationally. As an independent producer, Carelli has worked with Xavante videomakers in developing programs for television and in producing a video series for Brazil's Department of Education about the indigenous peoples throughout the country. Before founding VNA in 1987, Carelli worked at the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista in Saõ Paulo as photographic editor of the encyclopedia, Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. He assembled a collection of nearly eight thousand images of indigenous individuals and groups. He lives in Olinda, in the state of Pernambuco.

"What you see is that this new technology is very, very close to the elders. The young people are very enthusiastic because it's technology, but the elders realize that through these technologies—they don't have access to pen and paper, they don't write, but they can understand images and sound—and the elders who have a cultural project or political proposal have understood very quickly that this could be very useful for them. Technology and tradition are very close. It might sound like a contradiction but it's not."

Screened by NMAI

• Crônicas de um Genocídio/They Shoot Indians, Don’t They? Unreleased Director’s Cut. (2008) director
• Back to the Good Land (2008) director
• Iauaratê: Waterfall of the Jaguars (2006) director
  
• Good Trip Ibantu (2000) director
  
• Placa Não Fala/Signs Don't Speak (1996) co-director
• Meeting Ancestors (1993) director
• We Gather as a Family (1993) director
• The Spirit of TV (1990) director

Image credit: Vincent Carelli - courtesy of Vídeo nas Aldeias; Vincent Carelli - courtesy of Vídeo nas Aldeias