Enchanted Ecologies
Enchanted ecologies include performance-based and experimental moving image works by queer and trans visual artists from the Brazilian Amazon. Together, these films approach nature as a living being and highlight the role of cities in ecological conversations. They engage local non-human and spiritual beings through queer and trans perspectives that discuss environmental degradation, colonial history, community building, and gender-based violence. In this collection, we see the pervasiveness of non-human-oriented, but humanly responsible, practices in the collective imaginary of the Brazilian Amazon.
The programme invites us to reconsider what it means to relate to our local and global environments as a tactic to tackle environmental challenges and resist contemporary conservative and colonial forces. The screening includes a short introduction by the curators Danilo Baraúna and Xuanlin Tham, and will be followed by a conversation with Fi Halliday, a community gardener from the Govanhill LGBTQIA+ Gardening Group.
Curated by Danilo Baraúna and Xuanlin Tham. Presented in partnership with Amazônia EcoQueer and Take One Action Film Festivals.
This programme was partially funded by an International Fellowship (IF24\100830) of the British Academy.
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Accessibility
This event has:
- English-BSL interpretation for the introduction and panel discussion. The interpreter for this event is TBC.
- Portuguese audio with English language Descriptive Subtitles.
- Live Captioning for the introduction and panel discussion.
- An induction loop is available at the GFT Box Office. Enhanced Audio (EA) is available in their screening rooms via headset.
This screening is 42 minutes long and has an age recommendation of N/C 15+
If you require access seating please get in touch. Access seating includes: wheelchair spaces, sitting in the front row / in the aisle / at the back. If you need any other provisions, please let us know by emailing [email protected] with your name, ticket information and access request. We will do our best to work with you whilst also managing the capacity of the venue. Thank you for working with us on this.
You can find out more information about accessibility at SQIFF 2026 here. If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
Films in this programme include:
Fever, Dir. Rafa Bqueer, 2023, Brazil, 7min.
A green zentai-mermaid travels along the rivers of the Amazon until they confront the architecture that endangers their life. It offers a critical discussion about bodies, monuments, the Portuguese invasion, colonial wounds, and non-official representations of the Amazon. Produced during the ‘Casa Comum’ artistic residency.
Content notes: Depiction of references to blood.
The Island of Self-Contemplation, Dir. Allyster Fagundes , 2020, Brazil, 3 min.
In a world of playfulness, an enchanted being strives to reconstruct their hybrid body, fragile from a long-running identity struggle. When their identity emerges, the being discovers they are stranded on an island of rocks that functions as a metaphor for their battles. In that moment of revelation, a mysterious creature gives them comfort.
Access notes: Disorientating aerial images, loud noises.
Idyllic Enchantments, Dirs. Rafael Matheus Moreira, João Lucas Pedrosa, 2022, Brazil, 3 min.
A reinterpretation of Brazilian mythology that centres LGBTQIAPN+ bodies and friendship within a popular imaginary. Two complementary beings move across different spatial dimensions through a mirror, seeking comfort within each other’s bodies.
Access notes: Disorientating aerial images, loud noises.
The Island of Shadows, Dir. Allyster Fagundes, 2020, Brazil, 3 min.
An autobiographical film exploring the mermaid myth as a metaphor to express psychological characteristics of the author/performer. This film is based on the archetype of Shadow, one of the psychological structures formulated by Carl Gustav Jung about the collective unconscious.
Access notes: Flashing Lights, Loud Noises.
Caipora, Dir. Rafaela Correia, 2019, Brazil, 8min.
This film merges audiovisual experimentation with riverside cultures to tell the histories of Caipora, the rainforest’s protector, while discussing local modes of living, gender-based violence and the recovery of local identities.
Access notes: Flashing lights.
Content notes: Discussion of gender-based violence.
Heritage, Dir. Keila-Sankofa, Music Rafa Militão, 2025, Brazil, 6 min.
‘Herança’ is a project born between dark waters and enchantments. A musical short film that weaves together cinema, sound and ancestry, guiding the narrative whilst keeping a watchful eye on the secrets of the gourd and the enchantments rooted in the Amazon.
(In)finite body?, Dir. Ramon Reis, 2023, Brazil, 7 min.
An aesthetic and political manifesto that mobilises symbolic struggles to approach ancestry and spatiality. A film about life and death in relation to the urban Amazon and filmed in Belém on the Day of the Dead.
Access notes: Disorientating Images, Flashing Imagery.
Content notes: Discussion of death.
I am a crab, Dir. Nay Jinknss, 2023, Brazil, 2 min.
This film portrays a traditional and ecological carnival parade created in 1989 in Curuçá (Brazilian Amazon). During the parade, people use the mud (tijuco) from local mangroves as costumes, covering their full bodies before they walk in the streets. On this day, everyone is a crab, and Matinta Perêra is around the city.
Access notes: Fast camera movement.
Our Steps Overflow with Thirst, Dir. Danielle Fonseca, 2009, Brazil, 3 min.
A performance in which the artist offers her words to the river as a living being. This film is a free adaptation of the poem ‘Water’, by Edmond Jabés (Cairo, Egypt, 1991), and is part of the project ‘The fate of language is to become water’.
Access notes: Disorientating blurred images.
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Supported by Screen Scotland, the BFI Audience Projects Fund and Film Hub Scotland (part of the BFI Film Audience Network), all awarding National Lottery funding.
Image Credit: Idyllic Enchantments, Dirs. Rafael Matheus Moreira and João Lucas Pedrosa, 2022