[HN Gopher] Lost film of life in Brazil's Amazon 100 years ago r...
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       Lost film of life in Brazil's Amazon 100 years ago resurfaces
        
       Author : telesilla
       Score  : 142 points
       Date   : 2023-10-07 23:21 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | contingencies wrote:
       | Similarly I found what was perhaps first film ever shot in China
       | in the library of London's School of Oriental and African Studies
       | (SOAS) back in around 2010. Can't recall the precise format but
       | it was a situation akin to they didn't have a player for the film
       | format and the film itself had not been retrieved from storage
       | for many decades. The story about how it came to be shot was
       | quite interesting, one of the French colonial administrators
       | assigned to the Yunnan trading post was personal friends with the
       | Lumiere brothers and had been given a camera and film to "go
       | shoot some stuff". Upon further research the French family
       | thereof had, in the late 20th century, tried to monetize the
       | thing and had it buried. The SOAS copy, being free of their
       | latter-day copyright bullshit, was the sole free copy outside of
       | their grasp. I was able to come back some months later, after the
       | SOAS alumni volunteered funded to have it digitized, to a
       | _champagne soiree_ viewing - we had, after all, beaten the frogs.
        
         | luispauloml wrote:
         | Where can I see this film? Or read more about this?
        
       | beerdoggie wrote:
       | Hopefully it gets digitized and shared with the world!
        
         | botanical wrote:
         | And hopefully with a Creative Commons licence. Too much stuff
         | gets digitised and put under a "All rights reserved" paywall
         | gate.
        
         | bdowling wrote:
         | The article says they're doing "showings" of the film, which
         | makes me think that they don't want it digitized, probably
         | because the copyright is expired.
         | 
         | If they control all the copies, then they can charge people to
         | watch it, even if the copyright is expired. If a copy leaks,
         | though, then that revenue stream will dry up overnight.
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | Still, film disintegrates, so I would hope they digitize it
           | for archival, at least.
        
             | lsde wrote:
             | The film has been digitized by us (Narodni filmovy archiv)
             | to make screening DCP for the Pordenone Silent Film
             | Festival, where the film will be unveiled.
             | 
             | The raw scans were also provided to our counterparts in
             | Cinemateca Brasiliera who are now in charge to decide about
             | the film's fate. I surely hope they will make it accessible
             | under a non-permissible license.
        
               | stavros wrote:
               | Ah, that's good to know, thank you!
        
               | justinclift wrote:
               | What's a "non-permissible license"?
        
               | lucasfcosta wrote:
               | It's awesome to have people involved with this work here.
               | 
               | I home Cinemateca Brasileira will decide to screen it.
               | Unfortunately, Brazilian culture doesn't get a lot of
               | attention in Brazil.
               | 
               | It seems like the rest of the world cares more about our
               | history than we do.
        
               | [deleted]
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | userbinator wrote:
       | It says a lot about the influence of marketing and branding, that
       | upon seeing the word "Amazon", what immediately came to mind was
       | something other than what's described in this article.
       | 
       | Maybe in another century, this might make the news: Lost film of
       | life in Bezos' Amazon 100 years ago resurfaces.
        
         | drowsspa wrote:
         | "Brazil" is the word right before it...
        
           | whycome wrote:
           | https://www.amazon.com.br/
        
           | userbinator wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_locations#Brazi.
           | ..
        
         | accrual wrote:
         | I also had another interpretation and thought the title meant a
         | literal film of life, like a microbial bio film. Time to get
         | some sleep!
        
       | pentagrama wrote:
       | It reminded me the movie Embrace of the Serpent.
       | 
       | > the film follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the
       | indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle,
       | one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an
       | American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant
       | yakruna. It was inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch-
       | Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes, and dedicated to lost
       | Amazonian cultures.
       | 
       | Highly recommend
       | 
       | Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace_of_the_Serpent
       | 
       | Trailer: https://youtu.be/4ff7TcnqHUc
        
         | echelon_musk wrote:
         | Note that the parent's description refers to the film of 2015
         | and not the film of 1918 in TFA.
         | 
         | I was confused for a moment until I remembered that Schultes'
         | trip took place in the 1940s.
        
       | camillomiller wrote:
       | I wanna spend a minute to say that this is an amazing article. It
       | has all the information and details one needs, it tells a
       | compelling story, and it's well balanced in describing political
       | and social implications. This is the average quality of most
       | stuff you read on good mainstream media, but someone very famous
       | wants you to think otherwise. End of the quiet rant
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-08 23:02 UTC)