Speakers:

Marilene Ribeiro (Director – 'Costs')

Laura Rival (University of Oxford)

Erika Berenguer (University of Oxford and Lancaster University)

'Costs'

As a response to the current investment in large hydroelectric dams as a basis for Brazil's 'sustainable' economic growth, Costs addresses the impacts these endeavours have had on both the environment and people. Director Marilene Ribeiro surveys three hydro schemes that have happened at different times in Brazil (the past - the Sobradinho dam; the present - the Belo Monte dam; and the future - the Garambi-Panambi dam complex). The video engages with situations in which the impacts caused by dams emerge in a more sensitive way; for example, when participants in her project (individuals who have been affected by these ventures) draw, sing, or speak about their feelings and their interpretations of their lived experience. (20 mins - 2018)

"A very important and powerful film as it engages with an absolutely urgent issue in a committed and touching way. It is delicate and it resonates its message deep inside us."

Carlos Falci - Brazilian artist and researcher

Details on speakers:

Marilene Ribeiro

Marilene Ribeiro is a Brazilian artist and researcher whose practice is focused on identity and contemporary issues, especially those that tackle the relationship between human beings and other elements of nature, bringing together photography, intervention, and collaboration. Ribeiro’s projects engage with the politics of art and the role of image-based media in society. Amongst other prizes and grants, she has been shortlisted for the Arles Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award, the Marilyn Stafford Foto Reportage Award, and has been awarded the Royal Photographic Society Award, the CNPq PhD Scholarship Grant, and   the International Art Residency Grant (Lab-MIS) by the Brazilian Museum of Image and Sound.

Online  portfolio: https://www.marileneribeiro.com

Laura Rival

Laura Rival is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Development at the University of Oxford. Her empirically grounded, theoretically oriented and policy-relevant research aims to renew our thinking about the relationship between environment and society. Empirically, her work is grounded in ethnographic research with the Huaorani (Ecuadorian Amazon), inter-disciplinary research with the Makushi (central Guyana), and policy-oriented research with a number of Latin American indigenous and peasant communities, both in Central and South America. Her current research builds on this expertise to address burning issues of development in the face of severe environmental degradation and accelerating climate change.

Website: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~soca0025/

Erika Berenguer

Erika Berenguer is a Senior Research Associate at both the University of Oxford and Lancaster University. Her research focuses on the impacts of logging and understory fires in ecosystem functions performed by Amazonian forests. Her interests lie in developing a better understanding of different ecosystem functions performed by human-modified tropical forests and in assessing the resilience of these forests in the face of climate change. In addition, she is passionate about finding ways of effectively communicating scientific results to relevant stakeholders and policy-makers.

Online portfolio: http://rasnetwork.org/

Contacts:

Marilene Ribeiro (mcardosoribeiro@gmail.com) and Geoff Goodwin (geoff.goodwin@qeh.ox.ac.uk)