Alex Pritz’s The Territory is a stunning documentary which spans the course of 2018 onwards in Brazil; documenting the fight to preserve the untouched area of the Amazon which is the home of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people.

In the beginning of the documentary a title card tells us that it was only in the 1980s that the Brazilian government had first contact with the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people. That means that a population of thousands was decimated to fewer than 200 in the span of 42 years. With this contact has also come deforestation to make way for farms that encroach on traditional Uru-eu-wau-wau land. This is hugely problematic, not just for the health and wellbeing of the Indigenous population, but also because 60% of South America’s rainforest is contained within Brazil. This is something that has disastrous effects not only on South America, but on the world as a whole.

In order to examine this issue, Pritz introduces us to various people involved in the struggle for the Amazon. There’s Bitaté, the young Uru-eu-wau-wau man who becomes leader of his people and who bridges traditional ways of living with new technologies.

We meet Neidinha Bandeira, the passionate activist who has worked tirelessly to protect the forest and who is willing to risk her life to help the Indigenous people maintain their territory and their livelihood. We are also introduced to Sergio, a man who up until now has worked the land for other people and who has become the leader of an association which is determined to capitalise on the remaining Indigenous land. Then there’s the invaders, who are not content to wait for Sergio’s Rio Bonito Association to legally secure land and who plunder at will, razing the land as they go.

The Territory spans the period prior to the election of dictator Jair Bolsonaro to the Pandemic, a period which has huge implications on the Indigenous people for many reasons. Firstly, Bolsonaro’s followers are emboldened by his anti-Indigenous rhetoric, spurring increased attacks on Indigenous people.

Secondly, Bolsonaro’s disastrous Covid response would further threaten the Uru-eu-wau-wau people as invaders wantonly encroached further on their land. It’s during this time that Neidinha finds the Department of Indigenous Affairs basically unable or unwilling to assist when it comes to invaders, insisting that there is no evidence of invasions.

Thankfully, the people of Uru-eu-wau-wau, under the leadership of Bitaté, find a way to fight back by using technology, they document evidence of invaders and arrest over 30 invaders encroaching on their land. What begins as a documentary which saddens and infuriates due to the horrendous liberties taken by non-Indigenous people becomes an inspiring and uplifting journey.

It’s very important to note that this documentary was filmed with the co-operation of the Uru-eu-wau-wau people, and in fact it is the footage filmed by the Uru-eu-wau-wau people themselves with their own technology that proves to be the most inspiring.

When contacted by a journalist wanting to film, Bitaté asks them to send a shot list and they will provide the rest, all while being paid directly. In addition to filming invaders and providing their GPS co-ordinates, Bitaté is also ensuring the preservation of the traditional ways and stories through film. This convergence of old tradition with new technologies is phenomenal.

Alex Pritz is very careful to provide a very anthropological approach to the story, allowing all parties to speak freely.

It’s this intimacy of their speech that provides some of the best insight into their thoughts and motivations. For instance, Sergio romanticises colonisation, looking to the old Hollywood cowboy and pioneer scenarios as his model for his own colonisation of the Indigenous land.

The ‘Brazillian Dream’, he says, is to own land and make profit from it, and he doesn’t understand why the Indigenous people can be allowed to have their land when they “just live there” and “don’t do anything”. This provides evidence of a huge dichotomy between the driving force of late-stage capitalism and the preservation of indigenous culture and ways of life.

In order to further highlight the threat to the remaining rainforest, The Territory also splices in gorgeous shots of native wildlife with accompanying soundscapes: the glistening eyes of a frog, the dutiful line of ants carrying leaves back to their nest, a pygmy monkey frightened by the noise of a chainsaw, the cacophony of a flock of wild birds and the myriad small butterflies that float in the air like confetti.

The Territory is an important look at how an Indigenous peoples are fighting for the preservation of their ways of living, not just for themselves, but to preserve the environment which is the very lifeblood of so many.

If after watching The Territory you are moved to take action, the website for the film offers solutions.

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Still riding high from his 2018 EP Cali Vibes, Brazillian EDM producer FTampa is back with his new track, F.i.A – a club orientated track that will inevitably propel him right to the top of the EDM scene once again.

Following the success of Lakers earlier this year, F.i.A comes as part of a sequence of club releases for Ftampa. Starting off with a cross-pollination of high octane synth structures before escalating at a throttling pace, F.i.A, gathers momentum throughout whilst warping vocals to ‘boom’ the big room. With his inspiration often drawing on his musical upbringing and past, FTampa channels both creativity and emotion through every layer of the track to create yet another ultimate club track.

With 10 years creating music under his belt, FTampa’s career broke in 2012 when EDM legend, Hardwell dropped Kick It Hard on the Tomorrowland mainstage. Today, FTampa is the owner of a unique sound whose iconic production has filled the most sought-after stage spots at Rock in Rio Las Vegas, Tomorrowland Brasil, Lollapalooza Brasil, Burning Man and even the same spot where Hardwell boosted his career, Tomorrowland Belgium – where he was the first ever Brazllian to play on the mainstage.

Having seen success with Who We Are, EDM Sux and Magical, FTampa is renowned for gaining millions of streams on Spotify for his tracks whose accolades speak for themselves. After a slew of successful releases, FTampa has ramped it up whilst catering for his core EDM fans and F.i.A as well as his long awaited upcoming releases fit into the mould perfectly.

FTampa – F.i.A is out now!

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Bruno Be and Fancy Inc have teamed up to release a huge new tune, Spectrum (Say My Name) via Só Track Boa Records. Sampling Florence + The Machine’s infamous track which has also seen a Calvin Harris rework, Bruno Be and Fancy Inc’s take on it is already in high demand. Currently one of the most requested songs by Brazilian electronic fans after hearing Vintage Culture spin it on his Tomorrowland set earlier this year, Spectrum (Say My Name) is set to be a winter sizzler.

Infused with a progressive ensemble of enchanting synths and hypnotic percussion, Spectrum (Say My Name) features a melodic ambience boasting crossover potential as the sublime vocals soar over the arrangement. Intertwining multiple genre realms, Bruno Be and Fancy Inc have delivered a winner while simultaneously paving the way for even more stunning productions.

First famed for his official remix of Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s Human take which has garnered over 26 million Spotify streams, Bruno Be has been taking the Brazilian EDM scene by storm. Meanwhile his original work which includes Take Me Out and Best Friends has been doing numbers and will no doubt have helped him with land slots at both Rock in Rio and Lollapalooza earlier this year. Taking it back to the what first put Bruno Be on the map, he’s now taken on Spectrum (Say My Name) under his wing.

Joining him, Fancy Inc are renowned for reigniting Brazil’s love for sexy house music with their Beatport Dance #1 My Girl and In The Dark hitting #3 in the overall chart, both of which were co-produced alongside Vintage Culture. With plenty of backing from Martin Garrix, Tiesto, Alesso, Afrojack, Hardwell and many more, Fancy Inc’s unique sound has landed them a spot at next year’s Lollapalooza Brazil.

Bruno Be, Fancy Inc – Spectrum (Say My Name) is out now via Só Track Boa Records.

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Free Fire World Series 2019, the latest global esports tournament featuring the world’s most popular mobile battle royale game, is coming to Latin America for the first time ever.

Free Fire World Series 2019 allows Free Fire players from across the globe, including Indonesia, India, and Latin America, the opportunity to fly to Brazil to compete with the best in the world. A new Free Fire World Champion will be crowned at the grand final in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, on November 16th, 2019.

The road to Free Fire World Series 2019, which had qualifiers held in 11 regions globally, started on August 11th, 2019. The top teams from each region will compete to be the new World Champions of Free Fire at the Riocentro Convention & Event Center in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the year.

Free Fire has the largest and one of the most engaged global games community. Garena World 2019, which hosted the first-ever Free Fire World Cup, saw close to 270,000 attendees over the 2-day event. Free Fire World Cup attracted more than 27 million online views in total and recorded peak concurrent viewers of over 1.1 million on YouTube. Additionally, the recently concluded Free Fire Pro League Brazil 2019 saw over 12 million views on YouTube alone.

Free Fire has become a massive hit on a global scale with more than 450 million registered users and over 50 million peak daily users as of May 2019. According to Sensor Tower, Free Fire was the most downloaded mobile game in Brazil, and the third most worldwide in Q2 2019 on both the Apple iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

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Brazil’s Independent Games (BIG) Festival, the largest indie gaming expo in Latin America, announced today that a cluster of prominent international mobile gaming companies will be attending its 7th edition, making the gaming application business front and center at this year’s event.

As part of Brazil Games’ efforts to further consolidate and promote the Brazilian Game industry internationally, local attendees will be treated to panels and talks whose participants will be composed of companies that have contributed to the creation of the most recent trends in the mobile video game publishing business.

Representatives from major publishing houses with proven track record will present their latest case studies to explain their involvement with helping mobile game developers to reach profitability by developing customized marketing and monetization campaign strategies. Part of the focus will aim at explaining how to develop and deploy the necessary tools in order to reach the KPIs threshold that have become standards in the industry in terms of user acquisition, engagement, valuation and retention. 

The Brazilian Independent Games Festival is honored to welcome this year the mobile video game companies listed below which will host the debates and discussions over the fundamentals on how to become successful in the mobile video game publishing business. 

BIG Festival 2019 Edition will be taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil from June 27 to June 30. The event covers competition between national and international games with cash prizes, exhibition of the selected games, awards ceremony, lectures and business rounds. To find out more on the BIG Festival go HERE.

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Once again this year, the Berlinale Open House Program has aroused great interest among filmmakers, journalists and festival visitors.

Nearly 18,000 guests visited the Audi Berlinale Lounge, situated right next to the Berlinale Palast. Great enthusiasm around the Red Carpet greeted the arrivals of stars and guests in the all-electric Audi e-tron (electricity consumption combined in kWh/100 km: 26.2-22.6 (WLTP), 24.6-23.7 (NEDC); CO2 emissions combined in g/km: 0).

The Brazilian-German-Irish duo of directors Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, who live in Recife, won the Audi Short Film Award with their film “Rise”. Wagner and de Burca, who are also represented in the Brazilian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019, delighted the International Short Film Jury with their virtuoso documentary, in which diverse voices come together in a cultural dialog, gaining an audience and visibility in this way.

At the Berlinale, the Audi Short Film Award is part of the Berlinale Shorts section. Alongside the Golden and the Silver Bear, this prize for shorts is one of the coveted awards at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. With prize money amounting to €20,000 the award is among the most valuable worldwide for short films. “Short films represent the experimental and progressive. In their compactness and complexity, they outline what the state of the art now is and inspire much further afield than the short film format,” said Jason Lusty, Head of Marketing Germany at AUDI AG. “The Berlinale Shorts competition brings together the film avant-garde and presents visions for tomorrow’s cinema.”

A total of 24 films from 17 countries, curated by Maike Mia Höhne, Curator of Berlinale Shorts, was assessed by the International Short Film Jury, consisting of Jeffrey Bowers (USA), Vanja Kaludjercic (Croatia) and Koyo Kouoh (Senegal). “Wild, full of delight, and bold – that’s the Berlinale Shorts in 2019. Audi reflects openness to new ideas and is the ideal partner for us for the short form of cinema,” said Höhne.

Audi also made its contribution to the program at the Berlinale 2019: from 7th to the 16th of February 2019, the Berlinale Open House cultural events, accessible to all and free of charge, were held in the Audi Berlinale Lounge right next to the Berlinale Palast, with many discussions, interviews, workshops and concerts. The Berlinale Lounge Nights were the perfect conclusion to long days at the film festival. Nearly 18,000 guests visited the pavilion next to the Red Carpet.

Many film makers from the official festival program and other pioneering thinkers from various disciplines were involved in the Berlinale Open House program, in collaboration with Audi change makers such as Matthias Brendel and Malte Schönfeld from the Audi Denkwerkstatt, Barbara Wege, project manager of the beyond initiative, Torsten Schön, data scientist of the Audi Electronics Venture, and Dr. Stephan Gsell, sound designer of the Audi e-tron. They and many others met to discuss creative solutions for the future. The events focused on topics including artificial intelligence, virtual worlds, diversity in festival programming, mobility in the future, new sound worlds through electromobility, and future visions in the fields of film and mobility.

The all-electric arrivals of stars and guests in the Audi e-tron at the Red Carpet of the 69th Berlinale met with huge public interest. “Audi and the Berlinale have grown together closely in the past six years. Thanks to Audi’s involvement we have been able to make the festival even more attractive.

The Berlinale Open House Program is the perfect platform for linking film makers from our current program and Audi experts who have important know-how on new technologies with experts from other fields,” said festival director Dieter Kosslick.

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The free-to-play car combat PC MOBA Heavy Metal Machines is diving into the depths of the ocean with the launch of the second season of it‘s Metal Pass: Into the Abyss. Available now for all players, Into the Abyss combines the unique gameplay, fast-paced action and Heavy Metal attitude that the fans love with lovecraftian horrors of the deep and also a new playable character: Jada “Stargazer” Jemison, a young astronomer fallen from a space station that comes to prove herself in the metal arenas.

Heavy Metal Machines came out of beta in September 2018, with the introduction of the Metal Pass progression systems and it‘s first season, Road to Malmheim. Into the Abyss has a 50 level progression with both free and premium tracks loaded with cosmetic items and abilities themed after abyssal creatures, ocean animals, watersports and the creations of writer H. P. Lovecraft. The additions are not only cosmetic, however, as Into the Abyss‘ new character brings unique gameplay mechanics into the fray.

Stargazer was created based on feedback from the game’s community and is inspired by Mae Carol Jamison, the first African American astronaut. She is a full support character that features brand new mechanics of teleportation and attachment to other vehicles. In addition to her Orbital Laser that can shoot down opponents and a Life Support healing ability, Stargazer can warp to a selected position on the track, as well as attach to an ally so that their vehicle is repaired over time.

“We consider the players to be the most important asset we have in Heavy Metal Machines”, says Tatiana Moreira, Hoplon’s Head of Marketing and Publishing. “That is why we are thrilled to finally be able to deliver this content largely based on player feedback. We think it is important to not only add new content, but new mechanics for the game to be constantly evolving, and to show our willingness to listen to feedback from veterans and new players.”

Heavy Metal Machines is a one-­of-­a-­kind 4v4 multiplayer arena combat game where two teams battle it out across three deadly arenas to be the first to score a goal and destroy their opponent’s base. Players choose from a roster of psychotic post-apocalyptic road warriors with each over-the-top personality bringing their own unique death machine, delivering a distinct style of gameplay with awesome upgrades and customizations to match. Over a dozen vehicles are available, dealing destruction while being accompanied by a dynamic, mood­setting heavy metal soundtrack.

From the Brazilian studio Hoplon, Heavy Metal Machines features dedicated North American servers and is available for free both on Steam or as a downloadable game client.

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BIG (Brazil’s Independent Games) Festival, the largest independent video game festival in Latin America, today announced that independent game developers from around the world can submit their games to be selected for the 2018 BIG Award.

BIG Festival is an initiative created by the Brazilian Game Developers Association (Abragames) and the export program Brazilian Game Developers, in partnership with Apex-Brasil (the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency).

The sixth edition of BIG Festival will take place from June the 23rd to July the 1st 2018 at the Centro Cultural São Paulo in the city of São Paulo and at Oi Futuro in Rio de Janeiro. The finalist games, developed for computers, tablets, smartphones, consoles and VR devices, will be available at dozens of stations for the public to enjoy during the free event and play them in order to contribute to the awards by voting for their favorites.

All registered games will be analyzed by the Festival Selection Committee and the selected ones will compete in categories such as Best Game, Best Sound, Best Art, Best Narrative, Virtual Reality. The winners will be announced on stage at the event.

Finalists will also receive free access to the business round tables of the largest Latin American games and animation industry hub, and may have the opportunity to give a talk about their game. In the last edition, 3200 industry professionals were in attendance with the objective to strengthen and create opportunities for the industry.

In 2017, Overcooked, from British developer Ghost Town Games, was awarded with the Best Game award, in addition to taking the category for best Gameplay. At the same time, Distortions, from São Paulo based studio Among Giants, was chosen as Best Brazilian Game and pleased most of the 20 thousand people who visited the event, also winning the votes for the Most Popular award.

This year, BIG Festival is introducing a novelty by taking some of its activities to Rio de Janeiro. BIG Rio will take place from June 23 to July 1 2018 at the Oi Futuro cultural center in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. The main theme will focus on the social impact created by video games and a free display of curated titles playable throughout the event will be available, in addition to panels and discussions on June 29 and 30, 2018, in partnership with Oi Futuro, the innovation and creativity institute of Oi, one of the biggest internet and phone companies in Brazil.

The BIG Festival is the main showcase for independent games in Latin America and has already awarded prestigious titles from around the globe in the five previous editions including SUPERHOT, This War of Mine, Gorogoa and Nom Nom Galaxy, as well as the Brazilian Horizon Chase World Tour, Toren and Aritana and the Pen of Arpia.

The registrations are officially open until April 13th, 2018 and must be made through the official SITE.

BIG Festival Details:
6th BIG Festival (Brazil’s Independent Games Festival)
From June 23 to July 1, 2018 (Monday, 25, does not open)
Business Roundtables – June 27th to 29th
From Tuesday to Friday: 10am to 10pm / Saturday and Sunday: 2pm to 10pm
Centro Cultural São Paulo – Rua Vergueiro, 1000 – Paraíso, SP
Free entrance

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