While James Cameron will be juggling a number of Avatar-related projects this year (which may or may not include development on a back-to-back sequel), the director will be fitting in a trip to Brazil among them.

The Belo Monte Dam is a proposed $20 billion hydroelectric facility that would generate power from the Xingu river (which flows into the Amazon), the construction of which has been proposed in Brazil to a great deal of controversy. The challenges range from charges of an incomplete investigation into what kind of impact is going be felt in the environment to assertions that the facility would be extremely inefficient. Another concern, that over 25 thousand indigenous people would be displaced, is what brings Cameron to the region, where he will bring his insanely sophisticated cameras to document the issue.

“I want to return to meet some of
the leaders of the Xikrin-Kayapo tribe who invited me…. I want to take a
3D camera to film how they live, their culture.”

Invited by tribe leaders before, Cameron has already documented the situation in a short-form expose that will be included on a future Avatar disc release. This trip though, will result in a full-fledged documentary intended to support the potentially displaced peoples.

Love him or hate him, you can’t charge Cameron with not fully exploiting his massive resources in the service of interesting projects, be they creative, social, or environmental.

(Yahoo News via /Film)