Ethnographic Films at The Jean Rouch International Film Festival 

We’re thrilled to share the news that the work of two anthropologists—Alice Villela’s film “As Far as the Eye Can See,” and Parsifal Reparato’s film, “SHE”—will be included in this year’s Jean Rouch International Film Festival, to be held in Paris, France, May 7– 4.

In 2023, Villela received a Fejos Postdoctoral Fellowship to help support her film. Villela has described her film as being about how, “Three generations of Kariri-Xocó indigenous people are set on an expedition to recognize the memorial territory of these people, stolen from them over the course of centuries of painful colonization. Their language, their knowledge and even their sacred rituals have been hidden as a survival strategy. Now, armed with cameras, drones, pipes, headdresses and maracas, they travel through the geographical landmarks of their territory in a road movie that is the preparation for new land retakes.”

Reparato’s film, “SHE,” has been described as a “choral narrative about female workers in one of the largest electronic industrial plant based in Vietnam, with 80,000 workers. 80% of the basic workforce are women who have agreed to work 12-hour shifts, day and night. The bodies of the workers are revealed piece by piece, maintaining the necessary anonymity that guarantees the freedom to denounce the working conditions imposed on each one’s life.”

You can catch “As Far as the Eye Can See” on Friday, May 8, and “SHE” on Tuesday, May 12.

More information about The Jean Rouch International Film Festival can be found on the festival’s website.