Like Dennis O'Rourke's Cannibal Tours (SFIFF 1988), this new film by the filmmakers of First Contact (SFIFF 1984) explores the cultural non sequiturs of Papua, New Guinea. Joe Leahy, the mixed-race owner of a coffee plantation located on land he bought from the Ganiga natives for about $600 twelve years ago, is now being confronted by the tribespeople, many of whom feel he is getting rich off their past generosity and good faith. The film tends to side with the Ganiga, and there is a refreshing sense that these are not people being studied ethnographically so much as a society taking its case to the media. Cultural tourism on the part of the viewer takes a back seat to a fascinating view of the tribe's self-questioning of its nascent relationship to money. Capitalist, feudal, tribal, and slave economics all appear to be in operation here. The Ganigas' interdependence with Leahy and simultaneous facility at cutting through his rhetoric to assert that they've been cheated create a riveting drama. The tribe's media awareness spotlights the changing role of ethnographic film in a world where there are no more cultures unversed in Western ways. One Ganiga, on being introduced to the filmmakers by fellow tribe member Madang says, "We'll sing, and they can film us." Madang replies, "No, it's not that sort of film." Indeed. Lisa Kernan