I had no idea what I was watching when AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC started, but after a while it becomes apparent that this is a documentary short from 1918, charting the encounters of a couple of explorers (a married couple) with some native inhabitants of the South Seas islands.
The print quality available on Harpodeon is very poor quality but that's as you'd expect for something so considerably rare. The viewer is afforded the chance to see a long-forgotten way of life in a society which progress has skipped. It says something that the husband and wife filming the natives feel very modern by comparison. There's an undercurrent of racism in the way the natives are paraded around in front of the camera, but the viewer must remember that this is from an era where freak shows and sideshow carnivals were still commonplace.
The print quality available on Harpodeon is very poor quality but that's as you'd expect for something so considerably rare. The viewer is afforded the chance to see a long-forgotten way of life in a society which progress has skipped. It says something that the husband and wife filming the natives feel very modern by comparison. There's an undercurrent of racism in the way the natives are paraded around in front of the camera, but the viewer must remember that this is from an era where freak shows and sideshow carnivals were still commonplace.