THE CHRONICALLY IMPERFECT IMAGE: THE BODY AND THE CAMERA AMONG THE MEBÊNGÔKRE-KAYAPÓ

The indigenous audiovisual production reaches, at the beginning of this century, a period of consolidation that seems related to a growing interest (both general and indigenous) in the notions of culture and image. In the Kayapo case, a historical quirk remains as the use of video goes back to the late 1980's. This paper discusses the relationship between the practice of videomaking and the socio-cosmological system of this group, in the context of inter-ethnic contacts, highlighting the importance of the relationship between the body and the camera. We used the Mebengokre aesthetic judgment on the filmed images in order to demonstrate the impossibility of producing a beautiful image