Somewhere in the South Pacific sits the idyllic island of Yap, home of 6,000 Yapese and untold numbers of palm trees. A strategic trust of the United States, Yap has been negotiating a "Compact of Free Association" as part of Micronesia. In 1979, a Los Angeles-based company installed a television system on Yap, complete with advertisements for products readily available in southern California: Big Macs, holidays in the Caribbean, carpet shampoos. WAAB-TV broadcasts eight hours a day, including a locally originated news show, hosted by Willy Gorongfel who announces, "Get out your betel nut, relax in front of your television set and enjoy yourselves." O'Rourke's film has its immediate, vertiginous ironies as we watch scantily clad villagers mesmerized by the tv sets in their thatched huts. But How Did You Know We'd Like TV posits something more insidious than the desire activated by elusive products and glamorous lifestyles. With a mere $70,000 in tv equipment, traditional culture is being completely usurped. Many Yapese are opposed to television, seeing it as a menace to their fragile values, but they can do nothing against the Western forces that have foisted this bit of "progress" upon them. O'Rourke subtly advances the argument that cultural imperialism merely replaces the more obvious military presence. Using this formula, the Yapese can change nothing but the channel. -Steve Seid