Keep the River on Your Right (2000)
Directed by David Shapiro / Laurie Gwen Shapiro / Laurie Shapiro
Sub-Genres - Anthropology, Biography, Social Issues |
Release Date - Apr 15, 2000 (USA), Mar 16, 2001 (USA - Limited) |
Run Time - 93 min. |
Countries - United States |
MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Mark Deming
In 1955, artist, author, and anthropologist Tobias Schneebaum fulfilled a life-long dream by visiting the jungles of Peru. Seven months later, the New York native returned with remarkable tales of living with a tribe of cannibals, watching their murderous raids on other tribes, and even eating human flesh with them. In 1999, Schneebaum returned to Peru at the age of 78 with a camera crew in tow in hopes of finding the cannibals he lived with many years before. While Schneebaum prepares for his journey, he lectures on the rituals and lifestyles of indigenous peoples, shares his views on homosexuality and open marriage among the natives of West Papua (in one sequence, Schneebaum, who is gay, is reunited with a tribesman who became his lover), and shows footage from his expedition with the Asmat people, who are believed to have attacked and eaten Michael Rockefeller in 1961. Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale was shown at the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival.
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Keywords
anthropology, cannibal, homosexual, jungle, lifestyle, Peru, reunion, ritual, tribe