Health Education in the Amazon? Go to the Movies
Health Education in the Amazon? Go to the Movies
Aldemar Matias is an Amazonian filmmaker with an eye for social impact.
In a scene from Parente, a documentary short about sexually transmitted diseases in the Amazon, indigenous Yanomami woman giggle during a sex education class as they pass around and examine an unwrapped condom. For all the sensitivities and complexity behind the foreignness with which they approach the idea of safe sex, the portrait of the women on the screen is comic and endearing. It is also effective.
“I don’t consider myself an activist. I love my characters and would never portray them as victims,” says Aldemar Matias, the 29-year-old director of the film. Matias’...
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