One certainly empathizes with Michael Rockefeller.
As the youngest child of a New York governor, his name would have opened any door. But instead, the bespectacled 23-year-old chose the far more challenging path of collecting "primitive" art in the dense jungles of New Guinea.
One day in 1961, a rogue river wave capsized Michael's catamaran and he decided to swim alone the several miles to shore in search of help. He never was seen again. Did Michael drown, get eaten by cannibals, lose his life to a shark, or get held captive? This beautifully illustrated snippet of a documentary, only 21 minutes long, explores such possibilities.
To be sure, technological advancement has shrunken our world since Michael disappeared. It's mind-boggling to think it took three days for Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to learn that his son had vanished. There is grainy, black-and-white footage here of the politician speaking haltingly to reporters who were clamoring for information: "Out there," Rockefeller reasoned philosophically, "Michael had one of the most exciting experiences of his life."
Through the haze of the mystery, and to Michael's great credit, an admirable humility emerges. Michael hadn't set out in a spirit of Western superiority that has wreaked havoc on the lives of other aboriginal peoples.
"The West thinks of bringing advance and opportunity to such a place," Michael says in one audio clip. "In reality, we bring a cultural bankruptcy which will last for many years."
Indeed, there is footage here of native people exhaling smoke, presumably from a cigarette, and blowing some bubble gum!
This 1978 production, narrated by a Leonard Nimoy near the beginning of his Star Trek pioneer, offers exquisite film and photo footage of the stone-age Asmat and their habitat so far from "civilization" that they continued to live as hunter-gatherers, subsisting on fish and the flesh of the sago palm.
Of the grandson of John D. Rockefeller, who was once the world's richest man, we don't learn much here, except that Michael was outgoing, restless, sensitive, and enthusiastic. An idealist, in a word. His father had apparently ignited his passion for the handiwork of native peoples, having previously opened New York's trailblazing Museum of Primitive Art.
On his exotic expedition, Michael was quietly seeking to barter together a collection of mangrove carvings of the Asmat, whose mythological reverence for wood casts them as the descendants of trees.
Tribes in the tropical territory reportedly fought with one another constantly, as "death must be met with revenge," but in the decade in which Dutch colonialists and various missionaries had explored the area, the Asmat had never previously been known to have killed a white person. Still, rumors had swirled that Michael's life may have been taken in revenge for a native person's slaying by the Dutch (we get to overhear a local chief denying this theory). An empty gas canister that Michael had used as a flotation device was later found at sea, leading some to surmise that he had simply drowned.
In some particularly interesting footage along the way, we observe adventurer-author Milt Macklin visiting remote Kanopu Island several years after Michael's disappearance. He'd been tipped off that Michael had been sighted there. However, Macklin failed to find any trace of the wealthy scion.
If only ambitious Michael had been more patient and remained with the overturned boat! An anthropologist with whom he had been traveling was rescued the very next day.
As the youngest child of a New York governor, his name would have opened any door. But instead, the bespectacled 23-year-old chose the far more challenging path of collecting "primitive" art in the dense jungles of New Guinea.
One day in 1961, a rogue river wave capsized Michael's catamaran and he decided to swim alone the several miles to shore in search of help. He never was seen again. Did Michael drown, get eaten by cannibals, lose his life to a shark, or get held captive? This beautifully illustrated snippet of a documentary, only 21 minutes long, explores such possibilities.
To be sure, technological advancement has shrunken our world since Michael disappeared. It's mind-boggling to think it took three days for Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to learn that his son had vanished. There is grainy, black-and-white footage here of the politician speaking haltingly to reporters who were clamoring for information: "Out there," Rockefeller reasoned philosophically, "Michael had one of the most exciting experiences of his life."
Through the haze of the mystery, and to Michael's great credit, an admirable humility emerges. Michael hadn't set out in a spirit of Western superiority that has wreaked havoc on the lives of other aboriginal peoples.
"The West thinks of bringing advance and opportunity to such a place," Michael says in one audio clip. "In reality, we bring a cultural bankruptcy which will last for many years."
Indeed, there is footage here of native people exhaling smoke, presumably from a cigarette, and blowing some bubble gum!
This 1978 production, narrated by a Leonard Nimoy near the beginning of his Star Trek pioneer, offers exquisite film and photo footage of the stone-age Asmat and their habitat so far from "civilization" that they continued to live as hunter-gatherers, subsisting on fish and the flesh of the sago palm.
Of the grandson of John D. Rockefeller, who was once the world's richest man, we don't learn much here, except that Michael was outgoing, restless, sensitive, and enthusiastic. An idealist, in a word. His father had apparently ignited his passion for the handiwork of native peoples, having previously opened New York's trailblazing Museum of Primitive Art.
On his exotic expedition, Michael was quietly seeking to barter together a collection of mangrove carvings of the Asmat, whose mythological reverence for wood casts them as the descendants of trees.
Tribes in the tropical territory reportedly fought with one another constantly, as "death must be met with revenge," but in the decade in which Dutch colonialists and various missionaries had explored the area, the Asmat had never previously been known to have killed a white person. Still, rumors had swirled that Michael's life may have been taken in revenge for a native person's slaying by the Dutch (we get to overhear a local chief denying this theory). An empty gas canister that Michael had used as a flotation device was later found at sea, leading some to surmise that he had simply drowned.
In some particularly interesting footage along the way, we observe adventurer-author Milt Macklin visiting remote Kanopu Island several years after Michael's disappearance. He'd been tipped off that Michael had been sighted there. However, Macklin failed to find any trace of the wealthy scion.
If only ambitious Michael had been more patient and remained with the overturned boat! An anthropologist with whom he had been traveling was rescued the very next day.
