The Alok Institute supports the VII International Festival of Cinemas of the Peoples (Festival Internacional de Cinemas dos Povos – FIFEP), set to take place from October 15 to 20, 2026, in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Organized by Pupunha Produções, the Festival brings together film, culture, memory, and diversity in a free program dedicated to highlighting the narratives of indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
In its seventh edition, FIFEP will be held at Cine Líbero Luxardo and will bring together filmmakers, researchers, students, artists, communities, and the public for a variety of activities, thereby strengthening the circulation of indigenous, ethnographic, and documentary audiovisual productions.
Over the six-day program, the Festival expects to welcome about 1,500 participants across its activities.
To stay up to date on the latest news and view the festival program, visit the official website: festivaldopara.com.br/2026/.
FIFEP serves as a space for exchange and gathering, helping to bring different narratives to new audiences and providing indigenous filmmakers with a platform to present their own perspectives.
The initiative also promotes exchange between different fields of knowledge and strengthens the audiovisual medium as a tool for preserving memory, cultural diversity, and the rights of indigenous peoples.
The images below show posters for some of the films in the screenings.
Vídeo nas Aldeias
One of the major highlights of this edition is a tribute to the 40th anniversary of Vídeo nas Aldeias, a project that has played a highly significant role in Brazilian and international Indigenous cinema.
Created and directed by Vincent Carelli (photo below), the Vídeo nas Aldeias project has become a benchmark in training Indigenous filmmakers and in strengthening the autonomy of Indigenous peoples to produce and share their own narratives.
Over the course of four decades, the project has helped expand the presence of Indigenous peoples in the audiovisual field—not just as characters in front of the camera, but as storytellers who create their own narratives, share their perspectives, and convey their knowledge.
FIFEP’s tribute recognizes this legacy and the impact generated by decades of film production, training, and distribution carried out in dialogue with various Indigenous peoples.
More Than Just Film Screenings
DFor six days, the public will be able to participate free of charge in a program that brings together a variety of cinematic, cultural, and educational experiences.
Among the planned activities are:
● The Divino Tserewahú Indigenous Cinema Competition, dedicated to Indigenous cinema;
● The Jean Rouch Award, focused on ethnographic film;
● Special screenings of audiovisual productions;
● Conferences and panel discussions;
● Roundtable discussions with guests and filmmakers;
● Workshops;
● Tribute to the 40th anniversary of “Vídeo nas Aldeias.”
The program aims to bring the public closer to Indigenous and ethnographic productions, fostering dialogue among filmmakers, researchers, universities, Indigenous organizations, and civil society.
Alok Institute support
The Alok Institute is the main cultural sponsor of the VII International Festival of Cinemas of the Peoples. This partnership reinforces the Alok Institute’s commitment to initiatives that celebrate the diversity and cultural expression of indigenous peoples, amplify diverse voices, and create spaces for connection and transformation through filmmaking.
Circulating Voices And Images
By Alessandro Campos
Director – VII FIFEP
“The presence of the Alok Institute as the main partner of the VII International Festival of Ethnographic Film of Pará, now VII International Festival of Cinemas of the Peoples, holds special significance for us. Across its editions, it has become a space for the circulation of films, people, ideas and experiences around Indigenous cinema, documentary, and visual anthropology. Along the way, one concern has always stayed with us: making the festival a place where Indigenous peoples do not appear only as characters in images produced about them, but are present as filmmakers, authors, thinkers, curators and subjects of their own ways of narrating the world. It is from this place that our partnership with Instituto Alok gains meaning.
The Institute has already walked alongside us in previous editions, and this year that presence grows stronger and wider, becoming decisive so that we can hold the festival without giving up what we consider essential.
Running an independent festival in the Amazon means constantly grappling with funding challenges, but even in the face of all these difficulties, we do not accept just any kind of support. FIFEP’s partnerships must align with its history, its commitments, and the militancy that sustains the festival. That is exactly why it brings us such joy to walk alongside Alok Institute.
The encounter between Alok Institute and FIFEP is not reduced, then, to the need to make one more edition of the festival possible. It is built around questions we recognize as shared: the defense of diversity, respect for Indigenous peoples, the recognition of their ways of producing knowledge, and the need to circulate their voices and images, strengthening their authorship, their power, and their autonomy.
About Pupunha Produções
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Belém (PA), Pupunha Produções brings together professionals with experience in audiovisual production, research, and the dissemination of visual anthropology in the Amazon.
The organization develops projects that bring together film, education, memory, cultural rights, and sustainability, working in partnership with universities, indigenous organizations, and public institutions.
It is responsible for organizing the International Festival of Cinemas of the Peoples, an initiative that promotes national and international exchange and broadens society’s access to narratives produced by the peoples of the Amazon.
