SXSW Film Reviews
By Marrit Ingman, Fri., March 18, 2005
REEL PARADISE
D: Steve James
Documentary Feature Spotlight
It began as a gag on IFC's Split Screen: indie maven John Pierson lugging cans of film to the remotest movie theater in the world – the 180 Meridian, located on the island of Taveuni, Fiji. Then Pierson bought the ramshackle theatre and relocated his family to Taveuni, where he began programming films, free of charge, for the 288 Fijians who would fit inside. In this enjoyable and frequently funny documentary, Pierson compares himself to the guy in The Mosquito Coast, but he comes off more like Fitzcarraldo, bringing Apocalype Now Redux and Gangs of New York to a population as turned off, as it happens, by highbrow cinema as his own children are. James (Hoop Dreams) isn't always kind to Pierson (a recent transplant to Austin) and, to his credit, doesn't shrink from the complexities behind the clashing cultures, but the film really shines when it illuminates the generation gap. Pierson's son Wyatt is a riot. Alamo Drafthouse Theatre, 4pm
