Nobodies from the Rainforest (Anonimato)

Nobodies from the Rainforest (Anonimato) is a short documentary about the Hupda indigenous People from Alto Rio Negro, northwest Amazon (Brazil).

Produced last year by Orlando Lemos, the film reveals a precarious health situation among the Hupda — one that’s been caused by outsider contact and a lack of access to clean water — as they struggle day to day with little resources, assistance, or even hope.

As for the health problem, the film primarily looks at Trachoma, which is a leading cause of infectious blindness in the world (8 million people, mostly in so-called developing countries, are visually impaired every year by Trachoma). There are however, numerous other health problems facing the Hupda.

Underlying this “modern life” is a story of one Hupda Woman, Lucia, who, mistakenly stepped on a poisonous snake after going almost blind from Trachoma.

After being bitten, Lucia wasn’t sure what to do, so she hid away. With her leg untreated though, it got infected and eventually developed into a necrosis. Lucia knew that if she went to a hospital the Doctors would want to take her leg away. She could not accept this.

Eventually however, she was sent to a city hospital. With her husband at her side, the doctors told her what she already knew. She escaped before they had the chance to take her leg.

After returning home, she was encouraged to see a western doctor working in the region. The doctor asked for the help of a traditional medicine man—and together they cured the necrosis without having to remove her leg.

Throughout all this, Lucia lost touch with her husband, who she lost touch with after she ran from the hospital. For months she thought the worst, that she would never again see the love her life.

Fortunately, it turned out he just got lost in the city. Lucia and her husband are together again, reminding them — and now even us, that even in the worst of situations, good things still happen. We just have to trust our hearts, take care of ourselves, and never ever give up.

The Hupda people live in the region bordered by the rivers Tiquié and Papuri, tributaries joining the left hand bank of the river Uaupes in the Upper Rio Negro region of the state of Amazonas in Brazil and the departament of Vaupes in Colombia. They are known as being part of the Maku linguistic family and have been in contact with the frontiers of colonization since the 18th century; there are records of countless epidemics of measles, smallpox and influenza which decimated the population. Currently they are distributed in approximately 35 villages (local groups) estimated at a total of 1500 individuals. The Hupda villages are, in general, close to areas of Tukano, Tariano, Tuyuka and Piratapuia population, populations which speak languages of the Tukano linguistic family, living nears the banks of the streams and rivers which make up the hydrographic basin of the Uaupes river.