Há Terra!

2016 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

12:47 minutes

Ana Vaz


Há Terra! (There Is Land!) is a short film by Ana Vaz that picks up on the artist’s previous film A Idade da Pedra (2013), in which Vaz imagined premodernity in her native Brazil. Há Terra! revisits the young protagonist Ivonete dos Santos Moraes, who has joined Brazil’s landless movement that struggles to wrestle land from powerful agriculturalists. The story is set in Brazil’s “sertão” (backcountry), where the cry “há terra!” (literally: “there is land”) can also be interpreted as an assertion that there is no reason for the landless, whose organized movement is now some forty years old, to be deprived of land. The protagonist Ivonete hails from the region of Quilombos, a settlement of runaway slaves that resisted colonizers. In the film, darting camera movements appear to chase Ivonete through the high grass, the young girl comes to personify a territory. The present-tense narration fuses with the past in the myopia of the long focus lens. The recurrent sound loop of a man shouting “Land! Land!” conjures up the distant memory of colonialism. But the beauty of Vaz’s collage of images and sounds hinges on the impossibility for the viewer to let the past pass. Shot on expired 16mm film, the artist describes her cine-poem: “ Há Terra! is an encounter, a hunt, a diachronic tale of looking and becoming. As in a game, as in a chase, the film errs between character and land, land and character, predator and prey.”


Ana Vaz is an artist and filmmaker whose works speculate on the relationships between self and other, and myth and history, through a cosmology of signs, references, and perspectives. Taking up the history and territory of her native Brazil, her films consist of assemblages of found and shot materials, and combine ethnography and speculation to unpack the frictions and fictions imprinted upon both natural and built environments and their inhabitants. Through a profusion of intricate and potent portraits of land, animals, and people, Vaz’s work evinces the interdependent relationships between colonialism, modernism, and the Anthropocene. Her artistic approach denounces the human consumption and destruction of the natural environment and native communities. Focusing on the stories and struggles of rural laborers, Vaz’s work offers narratives that have been absent, or erased, from history.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

See What Sold at the Barbara Walters Estate Sale at Bonhams
© » ART & OBJECT

See What Sold at the Barbara Walters Estate Sale at Bonhams | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...

SOURCE X Audible Lands: Spotlight on Singapore’s migrant musicians
© » ARTS EQUATOR

SOURCE X Audible Lands: Spotlight on Singapore's migrant musicians | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar July 6, 2020 SOURCE X Audible Lands is a film and music programme done in collaboration by The Observatory and filmmaker Eric Lee...

Greensburg Art Center offers unique, handmade creations at Art of Gifting sale
© » TRIBLIVE

Greensburg Art Center offers unique, handmade creations at Art of Gifting sale | TribLIVE.com Art & Museums Greensburg Art Center offers unique, handmade creations at Art of Gifting sale Quincey Reese Sunday, Nov...

South of the River
© » LENS CULTURE

South of the River - Photographs by Nico Froehlich | Text by Joanna L...

Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation Promotes South Asian Art with International Audience - via Stir
© » LARRY'S LIST

Durjoy Rahman speaks with STIR about his vision, and plans about his recent initiatives through an art foundation based in Berlin and Dhaka....

Selling Polaroids in the Bars of Amsterdam, 1980
© » LENS CULTURE

Selling Polaroids in the Bars of Amsterdam, 1980 - Photographs by Bettie Ringma & Marc H...

This is not in Spanish
© » KADIST

Sergio De La Torre

2011

This is not in Spanish looks at the ways in which the Chinese population in Mexico navigates the daily marginalization they encounter there...

If a Hirst breaks your budget, don't despair
© » THE INDEPENDENT

If a Hirst breaks your budget, don't despair | The Independent | The Independent Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent...

Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: RPG goes SEA with crocodile; A decade of Filipino art
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: RPG goes SEA with crocodile; A decade of Filipino art | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar JL JAVIER December 28, 2019 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...

Beneath the skim board
© » KADIST

Karla Dickens

2019

Karla Dickens’s collage Beneath the skim board addresses issues of discrimination and racism towards Indigenous communities in Australia through a constellation of historical and current events...

An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty
© » KADIST

Screening at 7pm at The Roxie In connection to his exhibition, Evidence of Things Not Seen at KADIST , photo-conceptual artist, Hank Willis Thomas selected these films as a homage to innovative and influential creators in the medium of film whose work supports social justice as well as explores contemporary notions of identity, race, history and a national legacy of resistance...

Podcast 67: Urinetown and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Podcast 67: Urinetown and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Pangdemonium, Musical Theatre Ltd October 30, 2019 Theatre reviewers Matt Lyon and Naeem Kapadia are joined by ArtsEquator editor Nabilah Said in this newly rebooted theatre podcast discussing recent productions Urinetown: The Musical by Pangdemonium, and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical by Musical Theatre Ltd...

Banksy sculpture targets church sex abuse
© » THE INDEPENDENT

Banksy sculpture targets church sex abuse | The Independent | The Independent A sculpture of a "vandalised" priest by the underground artist Banksy has gone on display today alongside 17th-century Old Masters...

22022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile
© » KADIST

Sawangwongse Yawnghwe

2021

22022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile by Sawangwongse Yawnghwe belongs to a body of work made in response to the Myanmar military coup that began in February 2021...

ChinaCapital: Dream, Hot Land, Interstellar Colonization
© » KADIST

Pu Yingwei

2020

ChinaCapital: Dream, Hot Land, Interstellar Colonization by Pu Yingwei addresses a complicated phenomena of intertwined influences from different political powers, capital forces, and ideologies in the reality of China...

Man with Blue Tie
© » KADIST

James Weeks

1962

Both Head-Portrait with Red and Blue Background and Man with Blue Tie are classic examples of Weeks’ deftness of line, shape, and color...

What Photobooks Does the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collect?
© » APERTURE

Home to more than a million objects, the museum’s library shelves are full of surprises....

A kiss, a queen and a battered Venus: the Art Fund celebrates 120 years of saving art
© » THE GUARDIAN

A kiss, a queen and a battered Venus: the Art Fund celebrates 120 years of saving art | Art and design | The Guardian Skip to main content A kiss, a queen and a battered Venus: the Art Fund celebrates 120 years of saving art The largest grant in its history to date, £2.5m, went to help save Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai (Omai) earlier this year Photograph: David Parry...

The Living Legacy of Funerary Arts
© » HYPERALLERGIC

The Living Legacy of Funerary Arts Skip to content Toraja people of Indonesia; central Sulawesi, Rongkong area, “Burial Cloth” (19th century), cotton, warp ikat, 65 1/2 x 152 x 107 1/2 inches (image via Wikimedia Commons) Death is one of life’s few universal experiences...