For this assignment you will analyze the film Avatar (Cameron, 2009). Even though you may have seen this film, do not depend on your memory. To prepare for this assignment, you should view the movie in its entirety and at normal speed at least once. However, in subsequent viewings, you may find it useful to turn on subtitles to make your note-taking more efficient. This is a hermeneutic approach to research, where you encounter the visual text reiteratively to deepen your understanding and integration of course concepts with the visual text.

View the film

Rent, stream, borrow, or buy Avatar (Cameron, 2009), but please remember that you will be viewing the film several times. YouTube and other streaming services have rental options for $3.99. Disney+ has streaming with a subscription. Your local library may have a copy. Local retailers such as WalMart, Target, and Best Buy may also have copies. If you can purchase or borrow a copy, that will give you an opportunity to view the film several times over a few weeks.

Avatar (Cameron, 2009) paper

For this assignment you will analyze the film Avatar (Cameron, 2009) through the lens of culture, leadership, race, gender, ethics, and sustainability. Unlike many academic papers, this paper asks you to write an interpretive statement of understanding. However, APA citations and references are required to connect your interpretation of the film to the theories and concepts we have learned throughout the course.

• Introduction, including a thesis statement
• Brief overview of the film (one paragraph only)
• Culture & Conflict:
  • Apply Hofstedes national culture model to the Navi. Where does their culture fall in the dimensions? (All cultures fall somewhere within all dimensions.)
  • Identify two ways in which this negatively affects their interactions with the humans. [The human cultural dimensions should be interpreted as the United States.]
• Race, Gender, and Leadership:
  • Describe the intersection between race and gender on Pandora. What cultural expectations are at work within the human group and the Navi group that determine how leadership is performed and by whom in each group?
  • How do the different cultural expectations of each group affect their view of the other group?
  • Using the lens of Leader-Member Exchange theory, to what extent does race and gender cultural expectations affect the in-group/out-group leader-follower dynamics in the movie? Compare and contrast the dynamics within the human group and within the Navi group.
• Ethics and Sustainability:
  • Describe how the film depicts Resources Development Administration (RDA) and issues of sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and the triple bottom line.
  • How does this align with ethical business and social practices?
  • How should RDA practice ethical and sustainable business practices on Pandora?
• [Optional: Add any other theme or concept you consider important to discuss.]
• Application of Learning
  • In what ways can the themes and concepts in the film be applied to our own place and time? What is to be learned?
• Concluding paragraph