Paz ENCINA
AP
The Ayoreo Totoviegosode, an indigenous people in Paraguay. The people, who have been surrounded by trees and animals without contact with the outside world for centuries, are being deprived of their homes due to rapid deforestation. Director Paz Encina weaves the myth, history, and reality of the Ayoreo to create a story of a girl who wanders the ravaged plains, leaving her ruined villages and communities behind. Eami is the story of a girl whose name means forest and the world in the native language of Ayoero.
¡°Eami¡± means forest and the world in the language of the Yoreo Totoviegosode, an indigenous people in Paraguay. To them, the forest means the world. On the plains of Paraguay, where they live, some of the most rapid deforestation on the planet have been taking place in the past few years. Eami is a hybrid documentary about the story of the Yaoreo people, who are literally experiencing the end of the world, through images and narratives of magic realism unique to Latin America. For this film, director Paz Encina travels to their destroyed land and collects their myths and histories. Based on his observations, he creates Eami, a girl who leaves the destroyed village behind and wanders through the deserted plains. The visual reproduction of the destroyed forest and indigenous culture is impressive, and the multi-layered sound is also noteworthy. The echoes are created by overlapping shaman's chant, the sound of forest destruction, lines of fictional characters, and interview with the Yayoreo on top of the wind on the plains. The film deserves to be called a cinematic ritual that mourns for the destroyed world and longs for restoration.
Paz ENCINA
Born in Asuncion, Paraguay. Paz Encina created Silencio Lab In 2016, a platform through which she gives seminars to train young Paraguayan talents. She is the first Paraguayan director to be part of the Hollywood Film Academy.