No Title, No Peace
Without land titles, terreiros and quilombos live in constant vigil.
At Terreiro Oxumarê, Mãe Sandra and Babá PC defend a sacred territory squeezed by urban expansion, while laws, real estate projects, and sewage threaten the water and the very foundations of the terreiro, in dialogue with the struggle for land titling at Quilombo Pitanga de Palmares.
Permeado entre indígenas e afrodescendentes, o conhecimento é oral, passado do curandeiro para aprendiz, de geração em geração, com poucos registros escritos produzidos pela própria comunidade.
Muitas das receitas para remédios naturais só são conhecidas por quem é iniciado em práticas de cura e em seus significados sagrados, num contato íntimo com o meio ambiente.
A preservação dos rituais da comunidade é essencial para manter a identidade e garantir a manutenção e preservação das tradições culturais brasileiras
Amid urban growth, Terreiro Oxumarê appears as an entire world compressed inside the city. Mãe Sandra de Iemanjá tells how this territory has become a “squeezed terreiro”, forced to defend itself from real estate invasion and to prove, again and again, that it exists and that it is sacred.
Beside her, Babá PC reminds us that this is a place where people are cared for, in body and spirit, and that persecution today also comes through “paper”, law, and pen. The episode comes close to the spring, to the water that must be saluted, and shows what happens when “progress” buries rivers, pushes sewage through, and threatens the spiritual foundations.
The narrative then meets Quilombo Pitanga de Palmares, in Simões Filho, where Wellington Pacífico speaks of a land-regularization process that drags on for years and charges a high price, marked by grief and violence.
In this context, Liliana Amorim, from Fundação Cultural Palmares, a federal institution based in Brasília, explains what land titling means in practice. From there, the film states, without romanticizing: land is not a mere plot, it is body, memory, healing, and future.
Amid urban growth, Terreiro Oxumarê appears as an entire world compressed inside the city. Mãe Sandra de Iemanjá tells how this territory has become a “squeezed terreiro”, forced to defend itself from real estate invasion and to prove, again and again, that it exists and that it is sacred.
Beside her, Babá PC reminds us that this is a place where people are cared for, in body and spirit, and that persecution today also comes through “paper”, law, and pen. The episode comes close to the spring, to the water that must be saluted, and shows what happens when “progress” buries rivers, pushes sewage through, and threatens the spiritual foundations.
The narrative then meets Quilombo Pitanga de Palmares, in Simões Filho, where Wellington Pacífico speaks of a land-regularization process that drags on for years and charges a high price, marked by grief and violence.
In this context, Liliana Amorim, from Fundação Cultural Palmares, a federal institution based in Brasília, explains what land titling means in practice. From there, the film states, without romanticizing: land is not a mere plot, it is body, memory, healing, and future.
Created and Written by: Carolina Moraes-Liu
Directed by: Carolina Moraes-Liu
Director of Photography: Rogério Sampaio
Art Director: Yata Andersen
Executive Producer: Candida Luz Liberato
Production Coordinator: Carla Copello
Controller: Renato ScopVam
Created and Written by: Carolina Moraes-Liu
Directed by: Carolina Moraes-Liu
Director of Photography: Rogério Sampaio
Art Director: Yata Andersen
Executive Producer: Candida Luz Liberato
Production Coordinator: Carla Copello
Controller: Renato ScopVam
Uprooted travels through communities in Salvador, Abrantes, and Camaçari to show the struggle for land and land rights as a fight for life, memory, and continuity. Across terreiros, quilombos, and Indigenous territories, the botanical knowledge of traditional communities emerges as a foundation of healing, protection, and identity, passed on through the body, ritual, and everyday practice. Women in leadership positions ialorixás, chiefs, majés, and ekedes sustain networks of care and resistance while facing invasions, environmental racism, enclosures, and violence that tries to push the sacred away from its own ground. From Parque São Bartolomeu, a sacred territory for traditional communities, to Feira de São Joaquim, where knowledge circulates hand to hand among stalls and roots, the series weaves together spirituality, botanical knowledge, and justice to assert a simple truth: territory is not a resource, it is belonging. In one of the episodes, the journey also crosses Brasília, following an Indigenous community fighting for its territory and listening to representatives of official institutions, to show how this dispute is decided both on the ground and on paper.
Uprooted travels through communities in Salvador, Abrantes, and Camaçari to show the struggle for land and land rights as a fight for life, memory, and continuity. Across terreiros, quilombos, and Indigenous territories, the botanical knowledge of traditional communities emerges as a foundation of healing, protection, and identity, passed on through the body, ritual, and everyday practice. Women in leadership positions ialorixás, chiefs, majés, and ekedes sustain networks of care and resistance while facing invasions, environmental racism, enclosures, and violence that tries to push the sacred away from its own ground. From Parque São Bartolomeu, a sacred territory for traditional communities, to Feira de São Joaquim, where knowledge circulates hand to hand among stalls and roots, the series weaves together spirituality, botanical knowledge, and justice to assert a simple truth: territory is not a resource, it is belonging. In one of the episodes, the journey also crosses Brasília, following an Indigenous community fighting for its territory and listening to representatives of official institutions, to show how this dispute is decided both on the ground and on paper.
