My First Contact

It was over 40 years ago that the Ikpeng Indians in the Brazilian Amazon saw their first white men, who included the Villas Boas brothers. These researchers came bearing gifts and documented their first contact with the primitive men with photos and on film. After that, the fortune hunters came. To protect the Indians from the intruders and from the diseases they carried, the Villas Boas decided to take the whole tribe to the Xingú reservation by boat. Here, they live together with other tribes and serve as an attraction for white tourists. My First Contact tells the story of the tribe's first meeting with the white men and what happened as a result, this all from the point of view of the Ikpeng people. With lots of gesturing and emotions, eyewitnesses recall the planes, or "noisy birds" flying overhead and "excreting" food and presents. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people long to return to their ancestral land and their traditional way of life, especially the older generation. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)