The Land of Spirits
60′ / UK
An exploration into the heat of Papua New Guinea in search of some of the undiscovered peoples of the region, this is familiar territory from the Bruce Parry series ‘Tribe’, but predates it by a number of years. Narrated in the first person it is disappointing to never see our hero, this creates a disembodied experience which casts the film in the shadow of Parry’s engaging piece. Where the film does triumph is in it’s sympathetic approach, where the film maker is aware of the impact of their actions at at the end of the day decides not to pursue the shot at all costs, realising that this will hasten the demise of the very culture he is attempting to document. This is a rare awareness and once that makes the film above many others of it’s type.