Toggle navigation
RAI FILM
Sales
Films with video
new
Film Sales public page
2023
public page
WordPress
Site
log in
found one film
with a digital version available
x
Region
"Melanesia"
x
Country
"Solomon Islands"
x
Keywords
"Social Change"
x
Directors
"Woodhead, Leslie"
x
Series
"Disappearing World Series"
x
Country of production
"United Kingdom"
x
Film Festival Year
"0"
x
films with a digital version
1
x
Section
Sales
1
Status
films with no status
0
show deleted films
0
show none-public films
0
show public and none-public films
1
show public films
1
Region
Melanesia
1
x
Country
Solomon Islands
1
x
Keywords
Death
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Ritual
1
Social Change
1
x
Social Conflict
1
Directors
Woodhead, Leslie
1
x
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
x
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
1982
1
Film Festival Year
not set
1
x
Event type
not set
1
Festival Prize Category
not set
1
Review Status
not set
1
videoScreenRatio
Price code - 1,2,3 or 4
or none-empty is required for Sales dropdown to show,
DVD and ASP Stream price depends on this.
1
1
Film
The Lau of Malaita
1982
52
'
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
.
*Pierre Miranda and a team from Granada Television have made a fine film exploring the trouble realities of the people of the lagoon in the 1980s.* (B. Shore) This film focuses on the people of Lau lagoon in the Solomon Islands who live on artificial islands near the island of Malaita. These islands are built of coral rubble and the people moved to them in an attempt to escape the dangers of malaria and enemies, and to find better fishing. The film focuses on change and conflict. The concept of 'custom' is vital to the islanders' identity, yet this is being eroded, particularly by Christian missionaries. The conflict between Christian and Pagan now pervades daily life, creating divisions in families and eroding knowledge of traditional life. Two 'custom' priests recently committed ritual suicide, one by swimming under a canoe containing women and the other by deliberately making a mistake in a ceremony. Within weeks, both priests physically died. The despair in the ability of 'custom' to continue that these priests must have felt is presented visually throughout the film. Few of the islanders remember more than a fraction of the hundreds of traditional spirits and the young are turning more and more to the traditions and commodities of Western culture. This theme is a common one makes it no less powerful or relevant. Spurred by the presence of the Disappearing World camera crew, the islanders built a house in which to store their traditional and ritual objects. A commendable act of preservation on the part of the islanders, but at the same time the implications of their act are saddening. They are taking their ritual things out of the sphere of living, daily tradition and placing them in the realm of objective history. B. Burt, 1988. Review of the film in Visual Anthropology Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 482–83. P. Gathercole, 1987. Review of the film. Anthropology Today, Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 20. P. Maranda, 1987. Correspondence on the film. Anthropology Today, Vol. 3, No. 6, p. 24. B. Shore, 1989. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 91, pp. 275–6.
Melanesia
Social Change
Social Conflict
Ritual
Death
Religion / Belief / Faith