John Pierson is a passionate cinema enthusiast who has written books on maverick filmmakers (including the bestsellers Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes and Reel Paradise), co-created, produced, and hosted the Split Screen series on the Independent Film Channel network, and helped produce a number of independent films, including early works by Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Richard Linklater. In February 2000, Pierson traveled to Fiji to shoot an episode of Split Screen, where in the tiny village of
Taveuni he discovered a fully functioning movie theater. A year later, Pierson discovered that the owner was closing shop and moving to New Zealand. Fascinated by the prospect of showing movies in a remote community that was still edging its way into 20th century technology -- most homes have no electricity or telephones -- Pierson took over the business. Although the theater had shown American films since the fifties, many of the impoverished locals were unable to pay the admission prices - so Pierson waived the costs, thus enabling more natives to attend. He and his family stayed in Taveuni for a year, and his friend Steve James (himself a documentary filmmaker of note) brought a camera crew to Fiji to document the final month of Pierson's experiment. Reel Paradise shows the Taveunians reacting to everything from Steamboat Bill Jr. to Jackass: The Movie, Pierson and his family discussing the reactions of his patrons, the exhibitors' sometimes thorny relationship with Christian missionaries who question his influence on the community, and the cultural and economic divide between the Pierson family and the Fiji natives. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
One wish[es] James could have followed him and his family from the beginning of their year-long adventure, rather than being swept in at the emotional tail end.
I found the 10 days of free films to be the intriguing part of Reel Paradise and the Piersons' life to be something more interesting to them than to me.
You are buoyed by the purity of the islanders' responses to some of what Pierson shows them: the Three Stooges, Buster Keaton and, most delightedly, Jackass: The Movie.
Serves not only as a charming, witty glimpse into an American nuclear family uprooted to browner pastures, but also as an exploration of how Hollywood product is viewed outside the Lower 48.
The Piersons are warm, funny people, and most of Reel Paradise shows them comically bickering with each other and laughing at the absurdity of the whole project.
A documentry about a family who moves to fiji for a year and run a movie theater to show american free movies. It is actually more of a family drama than it appears. There are many parts that are interesting like the teenage daughter going through a rebelious stage and envious of the locals.
June 4, 2010
Jeff Heruth
documentary about a family who moves to Fiji to run a movie theater. He shows them free to the public and runs both mainstream and independent movies. They showed Jackass to them one night and the crowd loved it.
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