In addition to visiting the Amazon for ten days ("five days too long"), Ann Patchett watched Fitzcarraldo, a classic Werner Herzog film made in 1981 in the Peruvian jungle to get a sense for the setting for State of Wonder. The movie is about an opera fanatic whose dream it is to build an opera house in the jungle and it was filmed in Peru. Although the library doesn't own the DVD of this movie, I was able to find a clip of the preview on YouTube and thought you might find it of interest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F53yUsgVuL0
It's short---just about three minutes, but I found it helped me visualize the book's setting a little better.
The library does own a copy of another DVD Patchett watched repeatedly as she wrote this book, called Burden of Dreams. It is a documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo, which was apparently quite a harrowing experience for Herzog and his entire crew.
