Reel Paradise

I fell in love with Fiji several years ago and return every June to detox from America. Fiji represents amazing incongruencies that push the visitor to the edge. You have unspeakable beauty and isolation in such a remote location but it is also a third world country that the British, of course, left in bad shape in the 1970's. Reel Paradise and its cast capture the contradictions that are ever present--down to the detail. And this is coming from someone who intimately knows Fijians and the culture. In fact, in many ways, Reel Paradise could be my story. The first time I arrived in Fiji my life was in complete transition. So I was completely open to all the joys and problems that come with Fiji. I experienced many of the misadventures, close friendships and odd occurrences that the Pearson's endured. This movie brilliantly captures the emotional struggles associated with painful choices and growth. I am loath to use pop psychology in my daily lexicon but I am sure the Pearson's did not realize they were indeed providing film viewers with a typical family's adjustment to life and all of its meltdowns. But with a twist. It isn't in some horrid American suburb but in a place so far away that most of its peoples were still living in bures only 40 years ago. This is why Reel Paradise is so special. I remember so vividly the first time I saw the star of the movie: the movie house itself. I was completely dumbfounded by such an odd sight. What was the story behind this old crumbling relic just beyond the international dateline? In fact the cinema was hardly in a village at all on an island far from Fiji's main island. It conjured up images of grey gardens --albeit one with kava, crime and conflicted relationships. Please experience Reel Paradise and know that this is as real as one may ever get to Fiji.

I viewed this based on, frankly, I can't remember what, but what I came away with was a vision of Americans as much of the world sees us, self-absorbed, selfish, completely unaffected by trampling on the rest of the world with what we think is "right for them"...John Pierson, his wife and children are some of the most abrasive, annoying and clueless characters to ever hit the screen, and all we get from their presence on Fiji is their "Manifest Destiny" take on things, that if it's good for us, then hell, it's good for everybody. They bring the worst of Western values to what may be in the middle of paradise but what is, in reality, a third world country, and they mistakenly think, by their mere presence, that they've somehow changed things. This is no "Sullivan's Travels", in which the filmmaker got the message and made a difference, but rather a grating examination of a dysfunctional family who can do nothing but bicker endlessly...Wyatt's a real prize, one of the few children whom I've felt like decking in my lifetime. Watch at your own risk, these are people you simply love to hate.

I've been on a documentary jag recently and I've seen a lot of them, across a wide range of production value and personal interest.

I ran across REEL PARADISE and found it REEL HARD TO WATCH. Like sitting next to a really annoying family at a restaurant, I found myself listening in on the conversation and being oddly fascinated with the inanity but ultimately wondering why I wasted my time.

You know the gist of the story--indie film guy takes his family to Fiji to show free movies at the local theater. You might think there'd be much to discuss about whether it's a good idea to bring American film into rural Fijian culture in this way, but the way they went about it is so obviously wrong-headed that it isn't discussable at all.

OK, it's one thing for the Pierson family (including two of the most poorly parented teens you can imagine) to be self-absorbed while immersed in a meaningless project in Fiji. It's another thing to shoot a documentary on it. Perhaps that's where it should have ended. But to have edited the footage and released this to the world is the height of self-absorption on the part of the filmmakers.

I see no redeeming qualities in the people, the project, nor the film.

The director of "Hoop Dreams" and "stevie" has made another wonderful documentary film. The film profiles independent film guru John Pierson's 'mission' to bring back a cinema in the remotest island of the Fijis. Among his selections are Hollywood popcorn movies like "Bringing Down the House," hits like "X-Men," classics like "Apocalypse Now!" and Buster Keaton's "Stemaboat Bill Jr.", and even some Bollywood offerings and in one instance, some student films from Temple University. The biggest hit of them all seems to be "Jackass," which was encouraged by Pierson's 11 year old son, Josh. The film also captures the family's struggles to live in a far away place where modern technology is largely unavailable (no internet). There is also a battle with the local Catholic church, as its clergy feel that the cinema is competing with evening services. The film reminded of my own experiences at an outdoor cinema in Buyukada (an island near Istanbul) in Turkey where I spent several summers during my teenage years (I grew up here, but my father was from Turkey). Reel Paradise is a great tribute to the cinema, and even people who are not film fanatics will be genuinely moved by this film. Kudos to Kevin Smith for backing the project, and too everyone involved with Reel Paradise.

We rented Reel Paradise anticipating a look into the trials of running a movie theater in a remote location, and dealing with cultural and language challenges. Evidently there weren't enough trials to fill the film, so the trials of being urban Americans in a non-urban culture filled in the gaps.

It was embarrassing to watch the teenage Fijian girl tell the camera how it's strange to watch the American girl talk to her parents. "We don't... talk like that". The tattooed and pierced American 16 year old did what and who she wanted. Not terribly related to running a theater, and not terribly interesting.

John proved to be rude and condescending to the Fijians, as well as his landlord. He insulted the school and church on the island, and showed the movies half way through the local mass, saying, they're going to have to make a choice.

As a fan of documentaries, and the new infotainment from Michael Moore and others, I was looking forward to a good independent film. What we got was an unfortunate display of how Americans act away from home, and why so many people around the world don't like us.

One of the few DVD's we have ever turned off before finishing.