New Orleans Film Festival 2009

Imagine Hurricane Katrina was not a hurricane but an event sponsored by the federal government, in collaboration with several multinational corporations. If your imagination fails you, watch Battle for the Xingu. The Xingu, a tributary of the Amazon, is home to over 10,000 indigenous people who rely on the river for survival. The Brazilian government is proposing what would be the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam, threatening to destroy the biodiversity of the region and deprive these people of their rights to a sustainable future. The filmmakers were in Altamira in 2008 for the Xingu Alive Encounter to witness the spectacular determination of the Amazon people to protect their way of life. Today, plans to build the dam continue; so do the protests.