Opening Pandora's Film
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i4.384Keywords:
AvatarAbstract
By metaphorically taking on the themes of imperialism and the suppression of indigenous peoples, by implicitly criticizing industrial capitalism with its voracious appetite for natural resources, while also participating in it, by linking militarism with ecocide while finding hope only in redemptive violence, and by presenting a religious worldview at variance with that of billions of people, the film Avatar has generated great controversy. Only through a multi-disciplinary analysis that examines the cultural tributaries of the film, and takes on-the-ground and cyber spaces seriously, will it be possible to begin an assessment of the significance and influence of this form of nature-related cinematic art.References
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Croken, Ryan. 2010. ‘No Garden to Get Back to: Understanding Post-Avatar Ecological Depressive Disorder’, Religion Dispatches, 28 January. Online: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/2226/no_garden_to_get_back_to%3A_understanding_post-avatar_ecological_depressive_disorder__.
Deloria, Philip J. 1998. Playing Indian (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Douthat, Ross. 2009. ‘Heaven and Nature’, New York Times, December 20. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/opinion/21douthat1.html?_r=3&th&emc=th.
Friedman, Kerin. 2009. ‘Avatar’, Savage Minds, December 24. Online: http://savageminds.org/2009/12/24/avatar/.
Grant, Catherine. 2009. ‘Seeing through Avatar: Film Allegory 101’, Film Studies for Free, January 27. Online: http://_lmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-seeyou-on-avatar-and-allegory.html.
Hopkins, Kathryn. 2010. ‘Indian Tribe Appeals for Avatar Director’s Help to Stop Vedanta’, The Guardian, February 8. Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/08/dongria-kondh-help-stop-vedanta.
Huf_ngton Post. 2010. ‘Evo Morales Praises “Avatar”’, January 12. Online: http://www.huf_ngtonpost.com/2010/01/12/evo-morales-praisesavata_n_420663.html.
Justice, Daniel Heath. 2010. ‘James Cameron’s Avatar: Missed Opportunities’, First Peoples. Online: http://_rstpeoplesnewdirections.org/blog/?p=169.
Krech, Shepard. 1999. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (New York: Norton).
Lertzman, Renee. 2010. ‘Desire, Longing and the Return to the Garden: Re_ections on Avatar’, Ecopsychology 2.1: 41-43.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1962. A Savage Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Louv, Richard. 2005. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-De_cit Disorder (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books).
———. 2010. ‘People in Nature: Exploring the Natural World’s Psychological Effects on Human Beings. An Open Letter to James Cameron’, Psychology Today, 24 January. Online: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/people-in-nature/201001/open-letter-james-cameron.
Michaelson, Jay. 2009. ‘The Meaning of Avatar: Everything is God (A Response to Ross Douthat and other Naysayers of “Pantheism”)’, The Huf_ngton Post, 22 December. Online: http://www.huf_ngtonpost.com/jay-michaelson/themeaning-of-avatar-eve_b_400912.html.
Moon. 2010. ‘Avatar Lands on a Wrong Mountain’, China Decoded, January 4. Online: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/01/19/china-bans-avatar-from-theircinemas-fearing-civil-unrest/.
Price, David. 2009. ‘Hollywood’s Human Terrain Avatars’, CounterPunch, December 23. Online: http://www.counterpunch.org/price12232009.html.
Rahman, Maseeh. 2010. ‘India Blocks Vedanta Mine on Dongria-Kondh Tribe’s Sacred Hill’, The Guardian, 24 August. Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/24/vedanta-mining-industry-india.
Renzetti, Elizabeth. 2009. ‘James Cameron’s Avatar’, The [Toronto] Globe and Mail, 18 December. Online: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/jamescamerons-avatar-a-symphony-in-blue-and-green/article1405271/.
Stanton, Pete. 2010. ‘China Pulls Avatar from their Cinemas Fearing Civil Unrest’, Moviefone.com, January 19. Online: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/01/19/china-bans-avatar-from-their-cinemas-fearing-civil-unrest/.
Suozzi, Marguerite A. 2010. ‘Avatar in the Real World—James Cameron on Indigenous Struggles’, Pulse (online news), 4 May. Online: http://pulsemedia.org/2010/05/04/avatar-in-the-real-world-james-cameron-on-indigenous-struggles/.
Taylor, Bron R. 2010a. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
———. 2010b. ‘War of the Worldviews: Why Avatar Lost’, Religion Dispatches, 11 March. Online: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/2349/war_of_the_worldviews%3A_why_avatar_lost_.
Yoon, Carol K. 2009. Naming Nature (New York: Norton).
———. 2010. ‘Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist’s Dream’, New York Times, 19 January. Online: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E5D91539F93AA25752C0A9669D8B63&scp=2&sq=Luminous%203-D%20Jungle%20Is%20a%20Biologist’s%20Dream&st=cse.
Published
2011-01-01
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Taylor, B., & Ivakhiv, A. (2011). Opening Pandora’s Film. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 4(4), 384-393. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i4.384
