Back in November 2020, The University of Auckland hosted a live webcast event with visionary filmmaker James Cameron, who is now based in New Zealand while he shoots the four sequels to his hit film Avatar. You can watch that conversation in its entirety after clicking the link down below:

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2776908/22DA4244A05A2ECB95D36A6703FC5623

Personally, I found the host speaker, Chinese-New Zealand film director Roseanne Liang, to be too starstruck to gauge with Mr. Cameron on the formal and inquisitive level that I was expecting.  A two-second lag delay didn’t help either.

I posted two questions during the live stream. The first was about practical effects and CGI which was awkwardly asked but answered well. The second was about his expeditions underwater, which unfortunately due to the closing window of time, got missed. Overall it was an interesting start to the morning, with undertones of Kiwi-naff.

For more James Cameron, you can watch his TEDTalk (free below), or find his Story of Science Fiction (TV Mini-Series 2018), which as neat as it is, I cannot forgive for not including Joe Dante (possible Joe Dante future post), but I digress — enjoy:

James Cameron’s big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create an unreal world all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic — from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving — and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” “Titanic” and “Avatar.”

James Cameron’s SF book: