Raoni Metuktire, the champion of Amazon protection and Indigenous rights, has accused filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux of failing to pass on money the pair raised together, an Associated Press investigation reports.
The chief of the Kayapo people, a Brazilian Indigenous group, and the Belgian have been friends since Raoni saved Dutilleux’s life from fellow Indigenous villagers in 1971. Seven years later Dutilleux’s film, Raoni: The Fight for the Amazon, narrated by Marlon Brando, was nominated for an Academy Award. From its success, the pair embarked on a longstanding partnership. Earlier this year they appeared at the Cannes Film Festival to promote Raoni: An Unusual Friendship, Dutilleux’s latest documentary.
Now Raoni says that Dutilleux has not handed over substantial sums of money, raised through tours the pair did of Europe and with films and books about the Kayapo, that he pledged would help fund social projects within the community. ‘My name is used to raise money,’ Raoni told AP, ‘But Jean-Pierre doesn’t give me much.’
Dutilleux denies the allegations, saying he has never had access to any money raised. ‘[Raoni] can sometimes say things like that, it has to do with age. Maybe it’ll happen to me too, to say stupid things,’ Dutilleux said. He told, told AP that money ‘doesn’t interest me. I’m a filmmaker, I’m an artist. I’m not an accountant.’
It is not the first time Dutilleux has been accused of failing to hand over charity money: the filmmaker fell out with the singer Sting and was removed from the board of the Rainforest Foundation over a financial dispute. Sydney Possuelo, the former head of Brazil’s Indigenous affairs department FUNAI, and Alexis de Vilar, a Spanish photographer who founded the Tribal Life Fund, have made similar allegations. There is no suggestion of illegality and Dutilleux denies any wrongdoing.
