The Pierre Verger Prize (PPV), promoted by the Brazilian Anthropology Association (ABA), is one of the main competitive festivals for film, photographic and graphic works produced within the scope of anthropological research in Latin America. Through these artistic and political languages ​​of knowledge dissemination, its exhibitions explore, record, express and challenge different contexts and sociocultural experiences.

The Pierre Verger Award has been held every two years since the 20th Brazilian Anthropology Meeting (RBA) held in Salvador/BA, in 1996, having maintained its continuity in subsequent meetings of the Brazilian Anthropology Association (ABA). Its Organizing Committee, which brings together local representatives and representatives from different regions of Brazil, is responsible for selecting and sending competing works to an independent, internationally renowned Jury.

Encompassing filmic, photographic (incorporated in 2002) and graphic (incorporated in 2022) works produced within the scope of anthropological research, the PPV is already configured as one of the main competitive festivals with an international reach. The objective of these awards is to present and recognize videographic, photographic and graphic research productions characterized by anthropological approaches with outstanding technical and epistemological quality. Towards a more democratic and inclusive society, in 2022 the PPV adheres to affirmative action policies, reserving 20% ​​of selected works for black, indigenous, trans and/or disabled anthropologists.

Since 2012, in the interstice between the RBA’s, the PPV Itinerant Exhibitions have taken place, a circuit that takes works to Brazil and the world through exhibitions, exhibitions and debates at universities, research centers and cultural spaces. This diffusion agenda also includes a growing process of internationalization of PPV initiated in other administrations. In addition to Brazil, we have researchers from Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States and France. With this, the PPV Itinerant Exhibition seeks to popularize knowledge, circulate works and promote debate about Brazilian (audio)visual anthropology in various cultural and teaching spaces.

This year, in Belo Horizonte, the PPV will hold its 15th Ethnographic Film Exhibition, 12th Photographic Essay Exhibition and 2nd Drawing Exhibition, at 34 RBA. This year, we have 27 filmic works, 20 photographic works and 8 drawings competing for the award. The program is structured in the form of Pre-event and Event. In the pre-event there will be conferences, with Ailton Krenak, Olinda Tupinambá, Faye Ginsburg (Anthropologist/NYU), Pegi Vail (Anthropologist/NYU) and Isabel Noronha (Filmmaker/Mozambique), important references for the Anthropology of image at an international level; the 15th Ethnographic Film Exhibition; the opening of the 12th Photography Exhibition and the 2nd Drawing Exhibition, followed by a projection of images from the exhibitions and a curatorial conversation. At the Event, together with the official program of the 34th RBA, there will be awards for exhibitions and workshops with filmmakers mediated by artists and academics with recognized experience in the area, artistic and/or academic field.

The PPV has become a tradition of ABA meetings, due to the value it attributes to the image, video and sound produced by anthropologists in the interpretation of cultural phenomena, becoming an instance of disseminating these achievements and an established and recognized space for reflection on Brazilian anthropological research. The holding of this event and its internationalization would not have been possible without the support of the Wenner-Gren Foundation and Capes, to whom we express our sincere gratitude.