The Falling Sky Documentary Interview: Davi Kopenawa & the Yanomami Dream the World Whole

In 2014, Yanomami shaman and activist Davi Kopenawa co-authored The Falling Sky, a landmark work chronicling the Yanomami’s Indigenous worldview and warning of the dire consequences of environmental destruction. Ten years after the book’s release, his urgent message reverberates throughout a 2024 feature documentary of the same name, co-directed by Brazilian filmmakers Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha.

The Yanomami, an Indigenous group living in the Amazon rainforest of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela, have long faced threats to their land and culture. Their population of approximately 30,000 people inhabit one of the largest Indigenous territories in the world, spanning roughly 37,000 square miles. However, illegal mining, deforestation, and encroachment by outsiders have devastated their ecosystem, introducing diseases and polluting vital rivers and water systems. ‘

The Yanomami’s resilience, embodied by Kopenawa, has been a cornerstone of their survival amidst these crises. Kopenawa has often been called “the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest” for his efforts to amplify the Yanomami voice on the global stage.

A Collaboration Rooted in Respect

As a documentary, The Falling Sky (A Queda do Céu) renders Kopenawa’s dreams and warnings into a powerful visual treatise, inviting global audiences to witness the urgency of the Yanomami’s struggle for survival.

During the New York City premiere at DOC NYC, Kopenawa and The Falling Sky co-director Eryk Rocha spoke about their journey with the film, through translation by the film’s publicist, Juliana Sakae. The film — which was seven years in the making and had its world premiere in the 2024 edition of Cannes in Directors Fortnight — was not an attempt at a direct adaptation of the source material. Well over 600-pages-long, the book’s scope is expansive and took many years to create with co-author, French anthropologist Bruce Albert.

“It all started while [co-director Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha and I] were reading the book,” Rocha explains, regarding the book’s impact on them. “We started searching for Davi and for Bruce to propose the project of making the film.”

Approaching the project with respect and openness, the filmmakers invited Kopenawa to shape the film, which is a co-production with the Hutukara Yanomami Association, an organization led by Kopenawa. Hutukara Yanomami Association works to unite and represent disparate Yanomami communities in Brazil and advances indigenous rights in the country.

Rocha described how the team immersed themselves in Yanomami life. A reahu — or collective ceremony led by shamans in an effort to hold up the sky — became a pivotal moment.

“It reoriented us during the filming, reoriented the script, and the film itself,” Rocha says. “It was during filming this ritual that it changed the structure of dramaturgy.”

The different components of preparation and realization of the reahu ritual serve as the main throughline of the 110-minute film. The Yanomami prepare food for the intercommunal feast and adorn their bodies with ornamentation like macaw feathers and body paint. In one scene, two men shuck plantains at night, with flashlights wedged between their neck and shoulders. They joke and gossip as the sound of a group of women singing can be heard in the distance, and the sound of crickets loud in the foreground. As night falls, Kopenawa addresses his community, cautioning and motivating the younger generation.

“And because we are surrounded by the napë [non-Indigenous] people, you, young people, awaken your wisdom!” he says. “You, who like to imitate the napë, know that I used to imitate them. I even cut my hair like them. I kept copying them and learning their language. And then I began to see myself as a protector of the Yanomami. That became my dream…”

“While I was fighting, you were growing,” he continued. “Look to your dreams! Don’t think: we were born for no reason. We grew up for no purpose.”

For the filmmakers, the process of surrendering control in light of the reahu became an enlightening experience.

“We didn’t arrive with the pre-made film,” Rocha explains. “We actually allowed [surrender] to happen, and it was such an intense, incredible and radical experience for us.”

Media as a Tool to Fight for the Forest

For Kopenawa, cinema represents a strategic opportunity for the Yanomami. He has collaborated with filmmakers before — most notably on the 2021 documentary A Última Floresta (The Last Forest) directed by Luiz Bolognesi — and his interest in using film as a medium to send his message to napëpë demonstrates the Yanomami’s adaptability. They interface with outsiders through nontraditional means, while staying rooted in the integrity of their beliefs.

“Film is not our culture. It’s not a culture from the forest. It’s actually a white culture,” Kopenawahe admits, while at the same time recognizing the medium’s significance and reach. “It is really important for those who don’t know the Indigenous people to get to know them, because we are not able to go to the city, so at least our image is traveling to the cities.

“There are people that don’t believe that we exist,” he adds.

Kopenawa’s life is deeply entwined with the fate of the forest. His activism began in the 1980s when he witnessed the devastating effects of gold mining on his people. Since then, he has tirelessly fought for Yanomami land rights.

Incorporating these experiences, Kopenawa actively guided and shaped the filmmaking process. He explains, “We want to show our suffering, but at the same time, we are protected by the nature, the forest, and the xapiri [sacred forest beings].”

Kopenawa’s decades-long fight to save his people has resulted in major gains, including formal recognition of and government protections for the Yanomami’s forest lands in Roraima and Amazonas states, in 1992. In 1999, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso honored Kopenawa with the Ordem do Rio Branco for his efforts advocating for the Yanomami people.

However, the protections gained in 1992 have been under constant threat — particularly during Brazil’s recent political climate, which sees rampant deforestation and weakened environmental enforcement.

Dreaming for and of Survival

Dreams hold a central place in Yanomami cosmology, acting as a bridge between the spiritual and physical worlds. Kopenawa asserts that the destruction of the forest disrupts this sacred balance, not just for the Yanomami but for all of humanity.

The documentary’s structure mirrors the Yanomami approach to storytelling, weaving together dream-like imagery, rituals, and the daily rhythms of life in the forest. The result is a work that feels as alive as the environment it depicts, pulsating with the energy of the entire ecosystem in which the Yanomami live.

Kopenawa offers a stark comparison between Yanomami dreamscapes with those of urban dwellers who are disconnected from their inner lives. “The city is full of light and full of things like a lot of partying, a lot of drinks, and then they go to bed at one or two AM,” he comments.

In contrast, the Yanomami respect the need to sleep and dream. He explains, “We have boundaries. We stop everything in order to sleep. Mother Earth sleeps and dreams on our behalf, and this is very important. Often we dream about the future ahead, whereas the people of the city dream about driving a car, riding in a boat, or being a football player. Our dream is different.”

He laments the loss of this connection to nature in industrialized societies.

“The thing is that the white people don’t speak the language of the planet, but they could,” he say, lamenting the loss of connection to nature suffered by industrialized societies. “People who don’t want to dream: I would consider them our enemy, because they are people who don’t actually want real things from life. They are destroyers of the planet, and the only thing they want is money.”

The Yanomami’s struggle is not merely about preserving their land; it’s about the survival of the planet. The Falling Sky carries an urgent message: the destruction of the Amazon is not a distant tragedy but a global crisis.

The film also underscores the power of storytelling as a tool for resistance. Rocha describes the three “pillars” of the film, saying, “The first is to diagnose the catastrophe of the system itself. The second one is to warn that this self-destruction is really advanced. And the third one is to invite the white people beyond and not only to dream about themselves.”

The goal of the film is also to amplify the message of the book on the global stage, not just the United States. Rocha explains, “The film’s desire is actually what Davi’s desire is in his own book, which is to spread the word, maximizing his word for the napë to get conscious about the collapse that the world is about to have between death and life.”

While traveling the international festival circuit with the film, Kopenawa has observed how the film is serving a purpose.

“It’s the acknowledgement that we exist; the acknowledgement of the strength of nature,” he says. “It is something interesting or beautiful that the non-Indigenous people were putting us in front of other people. So we’ve earned the respect that the Yanomami people deserve.”

Quoting Kopenawa, Rocha concludes, “I want the film to be an arrow in everyone’s heart.”

The Falling Sky (A Queda do Céu) Film Trailer

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