This post includes storyboards for MãmMãmBuge´s, an animated series for children; Kurupyra no Anhangabaú, a short film based on a Brazilian folktale; and Kriya Kuluene, a personal short film that recounts some of Céu’s experiences visiting the Kalapalos and Yawalapiti indigenous tribes of the Xingu Reserve in Central Brazil.
Comments from Céu:
I started my career making storyboards, and I love them. The film comes to life in my head and forces me to work quickly to get it into the frames. Usually, this happens in such a way that, after drawing the rough drafts, there’s no need for many corrections on camera line crossings or anything like that. It comes to me very naturally, and I don’t even know why.
From the storyboards presented here, you can learn more about Kurupyra at Anhangaba by reading this post on 3D Animation Design.
The MãmMãmBuge’s storyboards are my own character developments, which you can see in the post on Hand-Drawn Animation Design or the post on Comics.
Kriya Kuluene is a personal short film I’m working on but haven’t produced yet. It documents my experience visiting the Xingu Reserve in Central Brazil. For a month, I shared the daily lives of the Kalapalos of Tafukmán and the Yawalapitis, along the banks of the Kuluene River.
I slept in hammocks under the same roof as them, ate the same food, and shared the same routine. During my visit, there was also a funeral, called Kuarup, which is a grand ceremony. They don’t mourn their dead on the day they are buried, but rather at a special event, at a specific moment in nature and time. The Kuarup concludes with a representation of a battle and a wrestling match, which I personally understood as a declaration that the struggle for life continues.
As the days passed, I began to better understand the uniqueness of each individual in the tribe who dealt with me. And from that, I began to perceive my own personal aspects from a new perspective. In my last days there, the Shamans began to approach me and make some revelations about their Spiritual Realm. I hope one day to be able to turn this experience into something, perhaps in this very film.
The world of these people is seemingly disappearing in the global upheavals of contemporary human history. But when you live the essential, you connect not with the form, but with the spirit. Could some surprises be in store for us all?
Kriya Kuluene’s storyboard drawings were done quickly, with a brush, aiming for a style with few details, compatible with this raw life experience. A style, in the storyboards, that could be that of the film itself.
Céu D´Ellia
