
Uýra – The Rising Forest
(Uýra – A Retomada da Floresta)
+ Intro
Thursday 22 May, 18:30
Regent Street Cinema
Brazil/USA, 2022
Dir. Juliana Curi
72min
Portuguese with English subtitles
In a journey through their native Amazon Forest, Uýra, a transgender Indigenous artist, uses performance art to unite LGBTQIAP+ and environmental movements. Inspired by the knowledge of plants and their ecological cycles, Uýra's performances emerge as resistance against structural racism and environmental crimes. The documentary establishes a dialogue between Uýra's use of organic and inorganic materials in creating their costumes and makeup – from plants, seeds, flowers, and wood to fabric, plastic, waste, and paint – and their pedagogical and activist work with Indigenous youth in preserving ancestral knowledge. Embodying the forest itself, Uýra's transformations reclaim the body as sacred territory – a living metaphor for lands under threat. Their queer ecology weaves together ancestral wisdom with contemporary queer resistance, creating a radical reimagining of human relationships with nature. By dissolving boundaries between body and environment, Uýra's performances germinate trans-specific alliances and offer a powerful alternative to extractive practices that exploit Amazon territories and marginalized bodies.
Introduction by Mariana Cunha.
This programme is guest-curated by Mariana Cunha (CREAM, University of Westminster). With special thanks to May Adadol Ingawanij and Christel Tsilibaris.
Mariana Cunha
Mariana is a curator, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Westminster. Her interdisciplinary research explores the role of nature and the nonhuman in contemporary global cinema and moving image-based art, with a special focus on Latin America. As a film programmer, she has contributed to festivals and screening seasons in Brazil and the UK.
CREAM (Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media), based at University of Westminster, is a world-leading centre and pioneer in practice-based, critical, theoretical and historical research in the broad areas of art, creative and interdisciplinary practice. CREAM researchers take part in wide ranging academic and public engagement activities, reflecting the diversity and international scope of our research culture. For upcoming programmes visit events.