Source: Washington City Paper
Brazil’s probably best known for its soccer players, supermodels, and steakhouses, but it’s also home to some 200 indigenous peoples, including nearly 70 completely isolated tribes, more than any country in the world. The Ashaninka people, who reside in the state of Acre near the Peruvian border, are the subject of the film A Gente Luta mas Come Fruta, or We Struggle But We Eat Fruit. Directed by Ashaninka brothers Bebito and Isaac Piãko, the documentary recounts how, when its existence was endangered by logging, the tribe organized a sustainable way of life on its patch of the Amazon rainforest. From a young age, Ashaninka children are taught that their place on earth is tenuous—the tribe is constantly under threat from loggers, oil companies, drug traffickers, and diseases brought by outsiders. It’s enough to make you sympathize with some Ashaninkas’ belief that remaining removed from the outside world is for the best.