Amazon: The Invisible People

Unfortunately, the heavily-hyped, "never before filmed" Tageari tribe of Ecuador does not appear in this video. Their reputation as naked, missionary-mutilating, blowgun sharpshooters would have made them the quintessential noble savages in this docudrama targeting big bad Texaco. As a consolation, the video offers an approximation of the Tageari, the oft-filmed and not terribly "invisible" Huaorani tribe, who, as a result of yanqui interaction, sport codpieces, mug for cameras, and seem to enjoy scooting around the Amazon Basin with outboard motors. The Huaorani, we see in the video, have actually gotten quite savvy in their dealings with the white man, staging angry tribal protests and allowing environmentalist lawyers to do their bidding for petrol rights. A turf-ish lot, they are shown clear-cutting (gasp!) a wide border around what they consider to be their ancestral land...and their disgusting diet of roasted monkey--literally, primate on a stick, fur and all--tops Faces of Death for animal cruelty! I'm just trying to assuage my tank-topping guilt, for Texaco, and other hell-bent oil companies, are the true brutes in this video's bio-battle, having dumped one and a half times as much oil into the Ecuadorian Amazon as the Exxon Valdez spill. Perhaps the Tageari no longer even exist. Well lensed, acceptably eco-didactic, and recommended. Aud: J, H, P. (W. Pierce)