Resumo

This article aims to examine two phases of the English director Adrian Cowell (1934-2011), who documented the Brazilian Amazon for 50 years. The first phase that we intend to examine is when he arrives in the country and meets the Villas Bôas brothers, filming the attempt by the sertanista brothers to attract isolated Indians into the interior of the Xingu National Park, in order to save them from civilization. The second phase we want to analyze is when he returns to the country, in 1980, after a season abroad, and films for a decade what would become his most famous series: The Decade of Destruction. Adrian Cowell followed the entire process of development and destruction of the Amazon, conflicts of interest, the impact of major projects, advances in agriculture and livestock, colonization projects, road construction and hydroelectric dams and their consequences in daily life of the people who live in the region: indigenous populations, rubber tappers, farmers, loggers, gold miners and others. The study of his films is extremely important to encourage debate and awareness about socio-environmental issues, aiming at the preservation of the largest forest in the world.