Shamanic Cinema and Amerindian Perspectivism

Abstract

This article explores a crossover between Raul Ruiz’s notion of shamanic cinema and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s Amerindian perspectivism, insofar as both subvert the function of the apparatus of perspective, an essential element for the constitution in modernity of the subject and the world in their respective roles of agent and patient. From a dialogue with Jean-Louis Déotte’s theory of apparatuses and a critical questioning of the function of the apparatus of perspective at the basis of Western science, we seek to trace the existence of a more-than-human cinema in Ruiz’s work, a cinema that widens the coordinates of the living, giving perspective and agency to beings from other realms. We are interested in noticing how this shamanic or perspectivist character, in the sense given by anthropology, can influence film production.