Timed with the re-release of Avatar in theatres today, highly acclaimed director James Cameron has teamed up with Amazon Watch to produce a short feature “A Message from Pandora.” The documentary spotlights the battle to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, which thousands of local Indigenous people have vowed to resist, citing its potentially devastating impact on their communities and the rainforest environment. A three-minute trailer of the feature was launched today on the Avatar movie website, inviting Avatar fans to join the campaign to stop the Belo Monte dam and defend the rainforest. The full version of “A Message from Pandora” will be available on the Avatar Special Edition DVD due out this fall.
James Cameron became inspired by the story after he and cast members of Avatar including Sigourney Weaver and Joel David Moore traveled to the Xingu River in April accompanied by Amazon Watch and the Brazilian environmental organization Instituto Socioambiental. During their trip, the delegation visited Indigenous and river bank communities who would be adversely affected by the Belo Monte Dam Complex. The $17 billion project would divert the flow of the Xingu River; its reservoirs would flood 668 square kilometers, displace more than 20,000 people and generate methane – a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Seeing the parallels between Avatar and the battles taking place viscerally in the tributaries of the Amazon, Cameron made a commitment to support the campaign led by local populations along the Xingu River to protect their sacred rainforest homeland and their way of life.
Reflecting on his visit to the Xingu River, Cameron commented: “Here were people whose lives were going to be altered irrevocably, whose communities were going to be destroyed, literally put under water, or affected negatively as the river’s flow would change. For these people, it’s the end of their world, as they know it. And they’re reacting accordingly. They are there with their spears and their bows and arrows, saying that they will fight… We made a commitment to do what we could to help, to raise consciousness about this issue.”
Sigourney Weaver notes that the Belo Monte Dam would be “a disaster for the Xingu River, for the rainforest and certainly for all the indigenous people and families living along the river. Their way of life will disappear.” Weaver is also lending her support in defense of the Amazon and its people by collaborating with Amazon Watch, International Rivers, and Brazilian organizations on a state of the art digital animation to illustrate the devastating impacts of the dam – to be released next week.
“The Avatar spotlight comes at a critical time for the battle to stop the Belo Monte Dam. Just yesterday, the Brazilian government signed the contract to build the dam, ignoring warnings about the project’s serious ecological, financial and technical risks. We invite Avatar fans in Brazil and around the world to stand with the people of the Amazon and persuade Brazilian authorities to opt for greener and less damaging energy alternatives,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch.
Even though the Brazilian government is moving ahead with the project, opposition to dam construction continues to grow in Brazil. Earlier this month, communities directly affected by the dam project declared their unwavering resistance to the Belo Monte dam and the Brazilian government’s shortsighted plans to build more than 60 large dams in the Brazilian Amazon.
