It seems unlikely

A new movie set in the Peruvian Amazon is apparently in "pre-production," according to the online movie database IMDB. If stories like this one describe how the producers of the movie will interact with people living in a small town in the Peruvian Amazon, it seems unlikely that the movie is going to present anything other than a reflection of previously held ideas about people in the Amazon, rather than anything having to do with people in the Amazon. But what do you think?

Avatar in the Amazon

 

In 2010, Public Radio International ran this story about Avatar, the blockbuster science fiction movie, and the Achuar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The movie seems to make statements about the relationship between humans and nature, the extraction of natural resources, and indigenous peoples, all set on an vividly presented imaginary future world. One of the many reasons why this video clip is so interesting is that it presents several perspectives on the movie from the present day, but from indigenous people in the Amazon, whose opinions on Hollywood movies with $280 million dollar budgets are not often given much attention. 

Not everyone loves the Amazon

This clip is from the end of a documentary called Burden of Dreams, which in turn is about the filming of another movie, Fitzcarraldo. The project of making Fitzcarraldo was an amazing logistical struggle, and in many ways it was quite unlikely that the film would ever make it to the screen. Herzog’s films and the analysis of them is part of a long tradition in western art and thought, in which the Amazon and The Jungle occupy important places in how westerners think about themselves and about how they relate to nature, and to other groups of people.  Thanks to Peter Stahl and Manuel Arroyo-Kalin for pointing this clip out to me.