Documentaya: Cannibal Tours

"There is nothing so strange in a strange land, as the stranger who comes to visit it." 
- Albert Camus

Notas interesantes del documental por C. Kray:

Background notes:

**You will hear some New Guineans speaking a language called Tok Pisin, a language originally developed as pidgin language, but now a fully developed creole language.

**According to http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic, in Jan. 1996, 1 kina was equivalent to $0.755 U.S. dollars.

**According to http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/papuanew_history.asp: "Papua, the southern section of the country, was annexed by Queensland [Australia] in 1883 and the following year became a British protectorate called British New Guinea. It passed to Australia in 1905 as the Territory of Papua. The northern section of the country formed part of German New Guinea from 1884 to 1914 and was called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. Occupied by Australian forces during World War I, it was mandated to Australia by the League of Nations in 1920 and became known as the Territory of New Guinea. Australian rule was reconfirmed by the United Nations in 1947. In 1949 the territories of Papua and New Guinea were merged administratively, but they remained constitutionally distinct. They were combined in 1973 as the self-governing country of Papua New Guinea. Full independence was gained in 1975."

**First village in film: Kanganaman.

**PNG was a German colony under Kaiser Wilhelm II. The colonies were lost in WWI.

Frases clave del film:

"Those were good times with the Germans, right? That what I have heard about Africa, too." - Turista Alemán

Tres Italianos platicando “primitive people”: “really living with nature.” “In a way, hey don’t really live. It's more like vegetating in their environment.” “But maybe their life is better than ours---truly living with nature.” “They don’t seem sad.” “No, they are satisfied....They are delighted.” “They don’t have to worry about tomorrow.”

Los de Nueva Guinea les llaman a los europeos: “The dead have returned.”

New Guinean man: “We say they must be wealthy people. Their own ancestors made money.” “We don’t have money, so we stay in the village. If not I might go on the ship with them.”

New Guinean man: “Tourists read about us in books. They come to find out if we live like our ancestors.” He admits he doesn’t understand why they come. “I’m confused.”

Cameraman asks a New Guinean man: “Why do you allow tourists to come here?” Answer: “Because we get money.”

Younger New Guinean man: “We are friendly towards them. We don’t understand why these foreigners take photographs.” While he is talking to the cameraman, a woman sneaks up behind him and takes his photo. He is handed a coin. The cameraman says, "It's hard to make a dollar." Answer: "Yes."

Older man: “We must try to stimulate certain desires, so that they see things from our point-of-view—and also our clothes, the way we dress as tourists....They need to be helped.” “The problem is apathy and indolence, living in a world completely overwhelmed by nature.” “We have the good fortune to be born into a more evolved society.”

Análisis del film:

¿Quién es Dennis O'Rourke dentro del film? Un colonizador más. Es evidente que los turistas funcionan como conlonizadores de los Papua. Pero, ¿O'Rourke a quién coloniza? Coloniza a los colonizadores. Y lo hace de una manera brillante: Les hace creer que es uno de ellos, un colonizador más de los Papua. De esta manera logra obtener su confianza y acercarse a ellos para así lograr a su vez hacerles un examen antropológico. Los europeos responden a las preguntas abiertamente creyendo que están ayudando a O'Rourke a saber más de los Papua, sin darse cuenta de que lo que el director en realidad está analizando es la relación que se genera entre ambas culturas, y que al ellos formar parte esencial de esta relación, son objeto de estudio también. Los Papua montan un show para los europeos, pero los europeos a su vez montan un show para la cámara, porque todo el mundo monta un show para la cámara. Es imposible no ser colonizado por una cámara, no entrar en su juego estando consciente de la presencia de ésta. La cámara lo cambia todo. Sin embargo la relación Papua-cámara y europeos-cámara es completamente distinta. Los primeros lo usan como un medio de expresión, para quejarse de la dominación de la cultura occidental, y la manera en la que su actitud cambia ante la cámara es más sutil debido a que lo primordial para ellos son los europeos. A los papua no les importa quedar mal ante la cámara porque carecen de imagen propia, su imagen la venden a diario a Occidente, no creen poder denigrarse más y por esto pareciera que son inmunes a la colonización de la cámara. Del otro lado están los europeos que intentan impresionar a la cámara con su cultura, con su apertura y sus pensamientos colonizadores. Sonríen, usan su mejor ángulo, desempolvan palabras domingueras e ideas alguna vez leídas en libros cultos, caen en el juego de la cámara y montan un show para ella. Cuando otro occidental resulta ser el espectador y la mira no puede evitar verse reflejado y al verlo desde afuera, sabiendo que por su soberbia no logran darse cuenta de que ellos también son parte del espectáculo generan pena-ajena.