Ôrí

In 1977, Raquel Gerber started an investigation for a movie about the emancipation of Brazil's black population. Three years later she met Beatriz Nascimento who, in search of her own identity, was doing historical research about the link between the black cultures of Africa and Brazil. They decided to cooperate. The result is a film about black organizations and conferences in the 1970s and 80s on the one hand, and about a somewhat emotional and poetic study by Beatriz Nascimento of the black Brazilian's cultural continuity on the other. However, the film is more than just this: it is also an attempt to shed new light on the history of black people, and thus contribute to black emancipation. The title of the film stems from the language of the Yoruba, a West-African people. 'Ori' literally means head. It was used by the Yoruba to indicate the initiation of a tribe's member into a new stage of life. 'Ori' also expresses the consciousness in relation to time, history, and memory. The thread of the film is the notion 'Quilombos'. Quilombos are units of warriors who existed in Africa for several centuries. They were re-established in Brazil in the seventeenth century as a way of resisting white rule. Nascimento believes that their ideas now can still be a source of inspiration. Appropriately, the film ends with the celebration of the hundredth birthday of the abolition of slavery, in November 1988. An event that revived the discussion within the black community about the question of the Afro-American identity. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)