48 minutes Colour 1979
Film maker: Les McLaren
This film is about the music, and especially the singing, of the Trobriand Islanders. It includes songs and incantations for garden fertility, harvest chants and songs of love and enticement. Several Trobriand instruments are shown being played and sub-titles give the texts of the songs.
The film is visually beautiful, using colour, light, and shadow to create a classic and romantic vision of the Trobriands as a Melanesian paradise. The carefully recorded music is shown as vital to the activities of kinship, fertility, economics, magic, death, and in relating to the spiritual world. We suggest that this film be used in conjunction with written ethnography because, although words to the songs are given, the film never explains the meaning or context behind these words. With such written accompaniment, the film is recommended for introductory classes in anthropology, music, or geography. Catalogue number (16mm): 5RA111 £15.
B. Baldwin, 1949-50. `Kadaguwai: Songs of the Trobriand Sunset Isles'. Oceania, Vol. 20, pp. 263-85.
D. Gewertz, 1986. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 88, pp. 521-22.
B. Malinowski, 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
B. Malinowski, 1935. Coral Gardens and their Magic. Allen and Unwin, London.
S.J. Tambiah, 1968. `The Magical Power of Words'. Man N.S., Vol. 3, pp. 175-208.
A. Weiner, 1976. Women of Value, Men of Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange. University of Texas Press, Austin.
M. Young (ed.), 1979. The Ethnography of Malinowski. The Trobriand Islands 1915-18. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
If you are interested in hiring or purchasing this film please contact the Film Officer.
