apri 2 Q. 2001
FILMS
The tribe has spoken
Fascinating documentary
profiles a real man-eater
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Tobias Schneebaum (inset) revisits his tribal ways
K eep the R iver on Y our R ight
A
rising star in the 1950s New York art scene,
Tobias Schneebaum decided to leave society
and its trappings behind him. Journeying to
Peru in 1955, he eventually found his way down a
river to a tribe of natives known as the Amere-
kain. Although he always felt like the tribe was
keeping him as some kind of mascot, he nonethe
less felt at home in the primitive culture, until
one hunting party turned into something deadlier.
When his “friends” attacked another tribe and
slaughtered their men, Schneebaum knew he had
crossed a threshold, but it wouldn’t be his last.
After taking part in a cannibalistic dinner, he
stole out of the village, intending never to return.
T he amateur anthropologist still didn’t feel
at ease in polite society, however, so he depart
ed for New G uinea (now Indonesia) in the
1970s. There, he was adopted by another
tribe— this one noncannibalistic— and discov
ered homosexuality was not just accepted but
commonplace. A lthough he found a lover for a
time, he eventually left the A sm at as well,
returning to the “civilized" world.
Keep the River on Your Right (playing
through April 26 at C in em a 21) is the award
winning documentary about Schneebaum ’s lat
est journeys into the wilds. T h e frail 78-year-
old lectures at museums and on tourist cruise
ships that travel to Indonesia.
The filmmakers (brother and sister David
Acapulco s Gold D 9 /
PorHwvl s B G ST iTWganfa
Over 3 0 T eludasi
Shapiro and Laurie Gwen Shapiro) press
Schneebaum to return to the land of the
Asmat, where he is reunited with his for
mer lover. Later, against his protestations,
the crew wheedles the artist into returning
to Peru to face the ghosts of his memories.
A s presented in the film, Schnee
baum is a fascinating study in contrasts.
A s clips from old programs such as The
Mike Douglas Show reveal, he was as can
did about his homosexuality as he was
about his brief cannibalism. Having writ
ten several books about his experi
ences— including a children’s book!— he
is comfortable with his story in front of
the camera; it is when forced by the film
makers to reunite with his past lovers
and tribespeople that the resolve and
disarming practiced patter disappear.
Keep the River on Your Right is a well-
produced documentary that peels back the
cover on one man’s fascinating life. It allows
Schneebaum— and the audience— to feel the
love that transcends race, class and culture and
to confront the nightmares of past actions. In
total, it proves the old saying “You can never go
home again” is untrue; he returns to "our” world
and his life, but the cultural experiences of his
past always will be with him. — Andy Mangels
Nico and D ani
F
rom the moment teen-age Nico (Jordi
Nico (left) and Dani— growing up is hard to do
Vilches) comes on screen, his limbs impos
Technically, it’s well-made, and several of the
sibly skinny, his chest concave— hell, he
makes Calista Hockhart look fat— he is off-
actors acquit themselves nicely (although the
subtitles distract from the acting). Lots of excep
putting. He unsuccessfully tries to charm an
tional vistas take advantage of the rural Spanish
older woman on the train to a small Spanish vil
countryside. And the final message of the film is
lage where his friend Dani (Fernando Ramallo,
positive and doesn’t seem likely for any U .S. film.
looking like a much-younger Ryan Phillippe)
However, for me, the positives in the film were
lives, then brags to Dani that his large Adam ’s
far outweighed by the negatives. Nico and Dani
apple shows women he’s well-endowed.
might appeal to some audiences, but I’m not sure
Dani goes along with Nico’s strutting attempts
I’d be comfortable ever seeing it again.
— AM
to get laid before his 17th birthday (that’s right,
both boys are 16 and look it), but it soon be
H it and R unway
comes clear that Dani isn’t interested in either of
the two local girls Nico tries to romance. Dani is
hristopher Livingston’s Hit and Runway
more interested in “krampack,” the original title
(scheduled to open April 27) works the
of the film, meaning mutual masturbation, and
tried and true Odd Couple formula, throw
he ups the ante one evening with oral sex.
ing together a stereotypically macho but dumb
A s the lazy sum m er m oves on, Dani
Italian
guy and a stereotypically smart but
becom es more and m ore obsessed with keep
nerdy Jewish gay man who never would’ve had
ing N ic o for him self. W hen his attem pts to
anything to do with each other were it not for
underm ine his friend’s first heterosexual
C
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ment writer who finds it humorously ironic that
aged men discussing their cannibalistic past is more
interesting than preteen sexuality. You can write
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C hristopher M c Q uain is a Portland-based
writer and tireless observer o f pop culture.
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encounter fail, Dani instead sets his sights
on a gay writer friend o f his father’s.
To put it bluntly, Nico arid Dani (playing
April 27 to May 3 at Cinema 21) often made my
skin crawl, largely because of its awkwardly young
cast. Although I’m not blind to the idea that teen
boys are experimenting with each other all over
the world, seeing that experimentation on
screen— with the skeletal Nico as part of it— was
not something I ever wanted in my frame of
vision. Much jest has been made in the media
about twentysomethings playing teens on Daw
sons Creek and other shows, but let me just say
that seeing actual teens with their hormones rag
ing felt uncomfortably like kiddie pom (even
without much on-screen nudity).
A s a film, Nico and Dani has no obvious flaws.
the coincidences and ulterior motives that lead
them to collaborate on a screenplay.
Alex Andero (Michael Parducci) is a twen
tysomething who works at his family’s deli and
dreams of writing a hit movie. He flounders at
his screenwriting night class, where the teacher
sneers at his incoherent action film ideas. Elliot
Springer (Peter Jacobsen) is a struggling thir
tysomething playwright who has an overpower
ing crush on young ’n’ sexy Joey (Kerr Smith of
Dawson’s Creek), an actor who works at the deli.
Hom-rimmed, underconfident Elliot some
how musters the chutzpah to present a copy of
his play, Chicken of the Sea, to Joey in hopes of
getting the cutie to star in it and maybe “collab
orate” with its author. Joey couldn’t care less, but
when Alex is called upon to develop Hit and
Runway, an action script set in the modeling
world that he’s pitched but can’t possibly flesh
out, he comes across Chicken of the Sea and picks
Elliot, sight unseen, to be his writing partner.
Alex overcomes intellectual Elliot’s aver
sion to his idiocy by h w k in g him up with Joey,
who as it turns out has a fetish for Jewish men.
A twisting and turning series of mishaps and
heartbreaks ensue; at the end, everyone is
happier, wiser, more enlightened and not
much the worse for wear.
Livingston and co-writer Jaffe Cohen
clearly intended to create a sweet, humorous
story demonstrating that straight guys and
gay guys can overcome inherent differences
and get along, finding romantic and career
fulfillment in their own ways. Unfortunately,
the film rides so high on its anti-stereotype,
anti-Hollywood horse, all the while indulging
in easy profiling— Alex could be a minor,
hapless Sopranos character, while Elliot is
written as a superficial, hand-wringing
Woody Allen clone— and simple-minded
story contrivances, it’s hard not to be disap
pointed with its frequent hypocrisy.
A n added burden is the stilted way many
o f the scenes play, as if they’d been blocked
with a laugh track in mind. T he film could’ve
been better enjoyed without the pretensions.
Although superior to its most immediate
predecessor, 1997 s Kiss M e, Guido, Livingston
and C oh en obviously consider it a seriocomic
work of art with Annie H all aspirations, when
in reality it’s more on par with a passable
Friends episode. — Christopher M cQuain J F
a
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