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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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Film Festival 2025
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RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
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Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
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Films
found one film
Region
“Melanesia”
x
Keywords
“Social Conflict”
x
Directors
“Woodhead, Leslie”
x
Series
“Disappearing World Series”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
Year of production
“1982”
x
Status
“A”
x
films with a digital version
1
Region
Melanesia
1
x
Country
Solomon Islands
1
Keywords
Death
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
Ritual
1
Social Change
1
Social Conflict
1
x
Directors
Woodhead, Leslie
1
x
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
x
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
1982
1
x
Status
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