While the director of the Hollywood film Avatar, James Cameron, did not respond to an appeal from Indian tribal peoples in Orissa (see PN 2520), he has lent his support to tribal people in Brazil. Saying: “We’ve got a bit of a spotlight on us right now to raise awareness in certain key areas… and I think that is important,” Cameron visited the Xingu region of Brazil with Avatar actors Sigourney Weaver and Joel David Moore, to protest against the multibillion-dollar Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project.
In Avatar, the Na’vi people successfully resist attempts to loot the resources of their planet Pandora. Cameron said that in Xingu, “a real-life Avatar confrontation is in progress.”
Topics: Global south