Aline Baiana’s film Ouro negro é a gente has special screenings on Ilha de Maré

As the opening of Pivô Salvador’s 2026 program, on January 24 Pivô held two special screenings of Ouro negro é a gente, a film by artist Aline Baiana, on Ilha de Maré.

The screenings took place in Praia Grande and Bananeiras, presenting the film to members of the local community who participated in and contributed to the project’s development from the outset. Pivô organized a full day of programming on the island, also bringing invited guests and audiences interested in learning more about the film and the environment where it was shot.

Set on Ilha de Maré, Salvador, Bahia, the documentary, comissioned by Pivô, moves between recordings of the island’s natural landscapes—degraded by oil extraction associated with the operations of the Mataripe refinery and the Port of Aratu—and a web of testimonies that give voice to local fishers, artisans, shellfish gatherers, and activists.

The narratives presented in Ouro negro é a gente reveal the profound transformations and damage caused by the environmental and economic impacts of a predatory model of industrialization, which threatens the livelihoods and cultural identity of the island’s inhabitants. Presented at the 36th São Paulo Biennial and made possible through public cultural funding policies, Ouro negro é a gente was also screened at COP30 in Belém, at the invitation of ARTPORT.

In 2024, the artist took part in Pivô Salvador’s residency program. The film marks her return to audiovisual work after eight years, this time adopting a more direct documentary approach. This choice reflects an ethical commitment to the people and natural landscapes filmed, using cinema as a means to amplify these voices and settings.

In addition to images captured on Ilha de Maré, the film incorporates an edit of public archives from the second half of the 20th century, particularly from the period of the military dictatorship. In this context, the developmentalist project of “progress” intensified the political, economic, cultural, and social exploitation of Brazil’s North and Northeast regions, leaving a trail of irreversible environmental damage across multiple states.

The film is made possible by the Ministry of Culture, through the Municipal Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the City of São Paulo, with support from the Berliner Programm Künstlerische Forschung grant. Cultural sponsorship for the screening by Cassandra Press and cultural support from the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.

Check out images from the screenings by Manuela Cavadas.