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The Real Avatar: Story of a Sacred Mountain (Video)

Avatar Release To Kick Off Million Tree Planting Initiative

Source: Ecorazzi - While we’re not sure if anything about the DVD itself will be green, we’re happy to announce that Twentieth Century Fox isn’t just using Earth Day as it’s marketing bitch for Avatar. At a press conference today, the studio and its billion-dollar director James Cameron announced a partnership with the Earth Day Network to plant one million trees in honor of the film by the end of 2010.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to share the environmental messages from AVATAR through the efforts during the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and with Earth Day Network,” said James Cameron. “Earth Day Network’s commitment and actions to promote a healthy, sustainable planet go hand-in-hand with the themes of AVATAR.”

The non-profit, which is committed to caring for and nurturing the trees to maturity, will plant native species in more than 15 different countries. Natural disasters such as fires and landslides will also be considered during the planting process.

“AVATAR sends a universal message about the danger of exploiting our natural resources and brings to the forefront of the global consciousness the need to protect our planet and humanity, said Kathleen Rogers, President, Earth Day Network. “We hope this commitment from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment to plant one million trees, will inspire others to stand up against climate change for Earth Day.”

The Religion of Avatar - It Was Born in Piedmont, Italy?

Ok, so Avatar didn't sweep the Oscars, well I thought I could share one more interesting article on one of the most powerful films in history.

Source: Damanhur by Massimo Introvigne - A Turin based sociologist, director and one of the founder of the Center for the Study of New Religions. CESNUR also studies contemporary communal and spiritual movements, and their impact on social life.

This article has been published on two major Italian newspapers on January 30th and 31st, and is also avalible on the CESNUR website.

James Cameron's film Avatar combines an incredible technology, that can be only appreciated in 3D on the big screen and that can truly bring back to the cinema all those who feed only on Internet and tv, with an all-in-all very simple plot and a debatable ideology. The Na'vi, the peaceful inhabitants of the planet Pandora attacked by earthly mercenaries hired by a multinational, are in fact an obvious metaphor for all of those who are 'different': and the message is that those who are 'different' are always and in any case better than us. If it were only of a criticism of  what Giulio Tremonti calls the 'turbo-capitalism' of multinationals - including its scarce respect for cultures and the environment - there would be nothing to object. But the fact is - as many Christian critics in the United States have noticed - that the moral superiority of the Na'vi is derived from their religion, which the spectator is brought to admire and share.

The film teaches that this religion is superior to those of the earthlings, because it unites rather than dividing, because it is monistic rather than dualistic. It does not distinguish between Creator and creatures, and it venerates Eywa, the Mother or the All, a sort of collective mind of the universe that reveals it to be an extremely dense network of interconnections. Everything is connected with everything else, and the Na'vi shamans perform miracles, including healings, because they are able to penetrate these lines of connection and enter into attunement with Eywa. The classic name for this religion - not used in Cameron's film - is pantheism: but this is a pantheism revisited with an  ecological and New Age flavour. The reference to New Age is obvious, and it is more convincing than the hypothesis that the Na'vi's religion is a slightly modified variation of Hinduism - a comment that made the front pages of Indian daily newspapers. The expression "New Age," nevertheless, indicates a genre and not a species. There are very many  New Age groups, and there is quite a lot of diversity among them.

Those who are familiar with this world, when confronted by Avatar can't help but notice that the New Age group that comes closest to the Na'vi’s way of thinking is not in the United States, but in Italy, in the province of Turin. It's Damanhur, the "Aquarian" center founded in 1976 in Valchiusella by Oberto Airaudi, a place that is famous for its great underground temple. Despite how much its 'citizens' - as they prefer to call themselves - dislike this label, Damanhur represents the largest New Age community in the world. The hypothesis that Cameron could have been inspired by Damanhur is not so far-fetched. Books and videos about Damanhur in English are very common in the American New Age circuit, and the story of the underground temple that the community, quite incredibly, succeeded in keeping secret until 1992 has fascinated even large newspapers. The similarities are astonishing. Like the underground temple of Damanhur, the center of power and spirituality of the Na'vi is hidden: inside an enormous tree.

Like the Damanhurians, the Na'vi have their sacred language, and the use of it, both in Cameron's film and at Damanhur in Valchiusella, helps to indicate the difference with those who are not part of the community. Both the Na'vi and the Damanhurian citizens emphasize the value of being part of a 'people', a belonging that is not only ethnic but initiatic, and - as the protagonist of the film himself demonstrates - voluntary. The Damanhurians greet each other, recognizing the deep communion that exists between them, with the words, "Con te” (With you), not with the usual "buongiorno”.The Na'vi do the same by saying "I see you." At Damanhur, every member of the community establishes a special - bilateral - connection with an animal, taking on its name. Amongst the Na'vi, every warrior becomes one by choosing a winged animal to ride, and by being chosen by it at the same time.

The Damanhurian citizen, writes the founder Airaudi, becomes "a drop that is conscious of oneself and of all the other drops forming the sea of Being." The Na'vi would agree. Both the Na'vi and the Damanhurians believe pantheistically in a great All, where each manifestation of nature and life is in connection with all the rest. Like the Na'vi, the Damanhurians attempt to interact with these connections – also by using special symbols – obtaining results, or so they say, even therapeutic ones. One can understand - in the United States and elsewhere - the diffidence of the Church and the Christian community, for which pantheism and the negation of the ontological difference between the Creator and the creation are centuries-old enemies, now returning with the New Age. But until now, there haven’t been very many people who have seen the origin of this new Hollywood religion very close to us, in Valchiusella.

'Alice in Wonderland' Tops the Opening of 'Avatar'

Source: LA Times - The Tim Burton film takes in $210.3 million worldwide, the biggest Winter premiere of all-time. Much of the take comes from showings in 3-D.

Disney ended up picking just the right moment to jump down the 3-D rabbit hole.

As "Avatar" comes to the end of a historic three-month run, Walt Disney Studios' "Alice in Wonderland" took most of the 3-D screens and opened to an eye-popping $210.3 million worldwide.

Much like director James Cameron's mega-hit, Tim Burton's adaptation of the classic tale, starring Johnny Depp, generated about 70% of its opening weekend business from theaters with 3-D screens. It easily beat the premiere of "Avatar" and set a record for the biggest winter opening, even accounting for ticket price inflation, selling a studio-estimated $116.3 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada.

Overseas, it took in $94 million in 40 territories, also setting a record winter opening.

"After 'Avatar,' people were saying that they're ready for the next 3-D world and the first weekend in March was all of a sudden the right place to be to meet that desire," said Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross.

"Alice" played at about 220 more 3-D theaters than "Avatar," since exhibitors have added more capacity recently. As returns came in, it became clear that audiences generally preferred to see Disney's movie with the advanced technology, despite higher ticket prices.

"In theaters with multiple formats, we saw that the Imax 3-D sold out first, then regular 3-D, and then 2-D," said Disney distribution President Chuck Viane.

Though young women were most interested in "Alice," the picture's strong showing and sellouts at all times of day indicated that it had broad appeal. At midnight shows Thursday night, Viane said, the movie made $4 million, mainly from young adults. It generated $41 million in the U.S. and Canada on Friday largely from families with daughters early in the evening and from couples on dates later in the night. On Saturday, "Alice" grossed $44.3 million domestically, in large part due to families attending matinees.

3-D has accounted for an increasingly large percentage of ticket sales over the last three months for "Avatar" as it has marched past $2.6 billion. That will be very difficult for "Alice," however, because most 3-D screens will switch to DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" on March 26, a sign of the increasingly crowded marketplace for 3-D movies.

Word of mouth should be strong for "Alice," however, as audiences gave it an average grade of A-minus, according to market research firm CinemaScore, though reviews of the film were decidedly mixed. And with American students starting spring break next week, Disney will benefit from higher-than-average family attendance on weekdays.

The film's European opening was almost derailed when the studio, in an initiative championed by Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger, announced that "Alice" would be released on DVD just 12 weeks after it hit the big screen. Several theater chains, including two of the three biggest in Britain, threatened not to show the movie because of concerns the short window would hurt ticket sales. That led to a tense standoff that was resolved at the last minute.

Ultimately, "Alice" collected $16.8 million in Britain, by far the highest opening for a movie in March in the country. It also performed very well in Italy, Russia, Mexico and Australia.

"I'm just glad we had enough seats for everybody," said Viane.

Disney estimated that the countries where "Alice" opened last week would account for 60% of its international gross. The film has yet to premiere in several key territories including France, China, Japan and Brazil.

As often happens amid executive shake-ups in Hollywood, "Alice in Wonderland" is a gift of sorts left by former Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, who was ousted in September. Though the team led by his replacement Ross handled the successful marketing push for the picture -- including an aggressive campaign on Facebook and a controversial ad covering the front of Friday's L.A. Times -- it was Cook and former production president Oren Aviv who approved the risky $200-million production.

"The Disney team has developed a lot of terrific movies, including my predecessors who developed and produced this movie," Ross said.

Onstage Drama and Backstage Delight at the Academy Awards

Source: USA Today - The best seat at the Oscars is backstage. USA TODAY was in the wings of the Kodak Theatre Sunday night, capturing off-the-cuff moments that followed the staged events.

One of the most emotional moments backstage came after screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher won for his adapted screenplay of Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire and Mo'Nique won supporting actress for playing the film's malevolent mother.

Known for her brassy and blunt comedy, Mo'Nique humbled the audience by thanking the academy for showing that the awards "can be about the performance, not the politics." And she thanked Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar, for playing Mammy in 1939's Gone With the Wind. "I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to so I would not have to."

Mo'Nique had been criticized by some Oscar pundits for not aggressively campaigning throughout awards season. It didn't seem to hurt her; she won almost every major prize before also taking home the Academy Award.

Waiting just behind her in the shadows was Fletcher, his Oscar demurely held at his side. Onstage, Fletcher said, "This is for everybody who works on a dream every day. Precious boys and girls everywhere."

One of the ABC pages came by and said, "Does anyone know where Geoffrey Fletcher is?" while looking directly at him. "Do you have eyes on Geoffrey Fletcher?"

Fletcher raised his Oscar into view and with a stunned look asked, "Me? Do you mean me?" But before he would let the page take him to the pressroom in the hotel next door, he wanted his moment with Mo'Nique. A long hug ensued. But it wasn't silent.

"Oh, baby! Oh, baby," Mo'Nique repeated again and again, as they clutched their Oscars at the other's back. "Look what we did!" As they pulled apart, they raised their Oscars and clinked their heads like Champagne glasses. "To you," Mo'Nique said. "To you, my baby."

As they walked down the corridor to the elevator that would take them to the pressroom, Robin Williams jumped in front of them to lighten the mood, making "swish, swish, swish" noises as he swept an invisible broom in front of her slow walk.

"It's curling, curling!" Williams said, finally getting Mo'Nique to laugh out loud.

A bridge for Bridges

Kate Winslet was a bulldozer for Oscar winner Jeff Bridges. The actress, a winner last year for The Reader, presented Bridges with his Crazy Heart trophy and pulled him backstage, waving aside stagehands and declaring Bridges needed the place "to say other stuff, to thank the people he didn't thank out there."

She was referring to the academy's thank-you cam, an Internet-only camera that records winners' voluminous lists of names of people who need to be mentioned but were left out onstage. It's meant to encourage winners to give more heartfelt speeches rather than read a litany of managers, agents, lawyers, friends and family.

"And here," Winslet said, thrusting the open envelope with his name into his hands, "don't lose this!"

Clearly, her take-charge attitude came from being a veteran.

Though he's had a long career, Bridges didn't seem to know what she was talking about. As he wandered about, clutching his trophy, he passed the thank-you cam and its team. He laughed and said, "I don't even know what a thank-you cam is."

Soon he was swarmed. Tim Robbins first, then Michelle Pfeiffer, his co-star from 1989's The Fabulous Baker Boys, who introduced him onstage, and whatever focus he had left was gone. But eventually he made his way back to the camera, and he had a lot on his mind. He even pulled up a chair and sat down for the long haul.

Sandra at sea

Sandra Bullock, after winning best actress for The Blind Side, came backstage clutching Sean Penn's arm. "Sean, what do I do now?" Penn, last year's best-actor winner for Milk, shrugged and said, "I don't know."

She could have used some of Winslet's mother-hen-like expertise. "Well, I don't know either," Bullock said.

Just then, the best-director category came up on the monitors, and they watched as the action unfolded live right behind them.

Well, Bullock watched. Penn made a quick exit, leaving the baffled actress unsure what came next. To her rescue came Forest Whitaker, the best-actor winner for The Last King of Scotland three years ago. He asked her what she wanted to do, the options being go back to her seat, go to the pressroom or just stay put.

Bullock's response: "I want a cheeseburger and french fries and a milkshake." Whitaker nodded. "Ahhh, a little In-N-Out tonight," he said, with an expression of someone who knows good, post-Oscar burger dining.

As Kathryn Bigelow accepted best director for The Hurt Locker, Bullock took a moment to peek into the envelope Penn had given her. "Oh, I better double-check the name," she joked. "Oh, good, it does say mine."

No sooner was Bigelow headed in their direction than Tom Hanks announced The Hurt Locker as best-picture winner.

"Ahhh! She's gotta go back," Whitaker said, laughing and clapping. Bigelow, the first woman to win the best-director award, is known for her tough, no-nonsense films. But after winning two of the top prizes for her movie about an bomb defuser in Iraq, she looked like her own mind had just detonated.

"I'm in such shock!" she said, walking off the stage with an Oscar in each hand. Passing her was Hanks, who summed up the feeling of the night.

"What a moment," he said with a laugh.

And with that, the 82nd Academy Awards came to an end.

But before the show...

Hollywood's biggest night got rolling with the same nervous hustle as a high school play, albeit cast with the most famous faces on the planet.

An hour before showtime, Oscar winner Javier Bardem (2007's No Country for Old Men) was the first celebrity floating around the empty corridors behind the elaborate Kodak Theatre stage.

But one by one, the stars made their escape from the red carpet, and soon Bardem was hanging out on the loading dock smoking corner alongside girlfriend and Oscar winner Penelope Cruz and The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner.

Just inside, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were secluded inside their dressing rooms, but one guest brought them out, Baldwin still in his street clothes and Martin with his tuxedo shirt untucked and unbuttoned.

That would be Williams, who at first lingered in the hallway, unsure whether to knock. "Is it all right to say a quick hello? I don't want to bother them," Williams said, sounding a little hoarse. He recently had heart surgery, and though his manic energy was more subdued than usual, he rallied for the two co-hosts of this year's Academy Awards.

When Baldwin, all smiles, greeted him, Williams said, "Let's do one of these," chest-bumping the much taller Baldwin. "Whoa!" Williams said, getting a faceful of Baldwin's burly chest.

Outside, with rain coming down in drizzles, foodie celeb Wolfgang Puck lifted spirits by handing out little chocolate Oscars to the crowd of fans.

Ripped from the hemlines

Backstage, there's always a last-second wardrobe emergency, and this year, Amanda Seyfried and Jennifer Lopez, each wearing Armani gowns of shimmering silk with the strength and density of bubble wrap, needed pit stops for hurried repairs to torn material.

The trouble: fragile fabric and long trains, in a tight space, with lots of people not looking where they're walking. Marc Anthony put a hand on Robert Downey Jr.'s shoulder to stop him from snagging Lopez's gown. "I need to be following along with orange traffic cones on the back," Anthony told the Iron Man.

Close encounters

Helen Mirren, Oscar winner for 2006's The Queen, was surprisingly hanging around with teen starlet Miley Cyrus. And when Cyrus stopped for a touch-up at the makeup table corner, the older actress pointed to the greenroom and yelled, "Miley, we are forging ahead in here!" And the Hannah Montanastar quickly followed after her.

Earlier, Mirren was having fun on the red carpet with The Last Station co-star Christopher Plummer. Both were nominated for their roles as Leo Tolstoy and his wife, Sofya. Of her companion, Mirren said, "It's fun to have a friend on the red carpet."

When asked who made his suit, Plummer said: "I did. I stayed up all night."

She chimed in, "I hemmed the trousers for him."

At this point backstage, the already cramped entryways started to fill up significantly, and even the biggest stars were being nudged and pushed along.

Ryan Reynolds, extending his hand to Steve Carell, got to say, "I'm a big ..." before they were pulled apart. He caught up to The Office actor and added: "Hey, let me finish the sentence. I'm a big fan, not just a big." Carell said he understood.

Before the curtain rises

The clock continued to tick until just a few moments before show time.

The main acting nominees began pouring out onto the stage for the opening introductions, a presentation of them all onstage as the curtain went up that was unique to this year.

In the midst of the March of the Nominees, Crazy Heart's Bridges caused another gown accident, planting his foot on the train of An Education star Carey Mulligan and yanking her to a halt. Luckily, no damage.

"Awww! Oh, no," Bridges said, putting his hand on his bearded cheeks in embarrassment. "Just when I thought I had perfected my ability to walk."

Directly behind him was Up in the Air's George Clooney, his rival for best actor.

Clooney put his hands on Bridges' shoulders as they walked and said, "All I know, Jeff, is if you lose tonight, you're in such (expletive)."

Winners overwhelmed

Christoph Waltz, supporting-actor winner for Inglourious Basterds, couldn't have been surprised by his victory since it had been predicted ever since the movie premiered last May at the Cannes Film Festival.

But when he came off stage after a characteristically modest speech, the Austrian actor, who before was little known outside of Germany, had an uncertain look on his face.

Carrying his Oscar, he walked with presenter Cruz, who won last year for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Both of their wins have parallels. Cruz's film also premiered at Cannes, but she was far more used to the role of "celebrity."

As she walked him backstage, Bardem came over to meet them, and Cruz said to the new Oscar winner, "Are you nervous?"

Waltz pursed his lips, thinking for a moment before answering. "Yes," he declared finally.

For another winner, it's also been a whirlwind few years.

Ryan Bingham, who won an Oscar — with T Bone Burnett— for The Weary Kind, the theme from Crazy Heart, said backstage, "Me and my band were living out of our Suburban four years ago." Director Scott Cooper "gave me a copy of the script and said, 'If you're inspired to write anything, let me know.'

"And here we are."

Why 'Avatar' lost: 5 theories

Source: The Week - [Finding humor in the 'analysis' of the 'politics' of academy voting, lol] Is Avatar too anti-American? Too computer-generated? Inside the biggest Oscars' upset in years Best Opinion:  LA Times, Hollywood Reporter, Telegraph, Gawker, SF Chronicle

This was the year the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture contenders to 10, largely to give more popular films a chance. Yet James Cameron's Avatar, history's biggest box-office performer, lost the top prize to The Hurt Locker, the lowest-grossing movie to win Best Picture in recent times. Here's five theories on why Avatar got left in the dust:

1. Actors hate computer graphics
Actors constitute the Academy's largest voting bloc, says Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times, and they're particularly "queasy about rewarding a special-effects driven film [like Avatar] that...did little to honor the actors' craft." The Academy, in general, still rejects "films largely created and sculpted in the computer," even "game-changing" blockbusters like Avatar.

2. Science fiction never wins Best Picture
Avatar is just the latest hit "doomed because it's sci-fi, a genre that has rarely been rewarded by Oscar," says Alex Ben Block in The Hollywood Reporter. Remember: Star Wars lost to Woody Allen's Annie Hall, and E.T. lost to Gandhi. Though The Hurt Locker managed to avoid Oscar's "Iraq War curse," Avatar couldn't "sidestep the science-fiction label."

3. Patriotism beat out anti-Americanism
Even though Hollywood is "overwhelmingly left-wing," it rejected the "overtly anti-American and anti-military" Avatar, says Nile Gardiner in The Daily Telegraph — uncharacteristically backing The Hurt Locker. This suggests that voters really considered it the better film. Hopefully Cameron will focus on a compelling storyline next time.

4. Hollywood is elitist and navel-gazing
Avatar would clearly have won a national popular vote, says Brian Moylan in Gawker. But "the Oscars are not about America, they are about Hollywood," and shoring up its ego. Like Sunday's Oscars telecast, Hollywood is a "complete self-referential mess."

5. The Hurt Locker is brilliant in ways Avatar is not
"The bottom line is that it's easier to make a movie with great special effects," says Zennie Abraham in the San Francisco Chronicle, "than a timely film with a good story." The Best Picture Oscar is supposed to go to the story that makes you think about the world around you, and The Hurt Locker, "in so many ways, was that movie." Avatar was not.