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List Price: $24.95 |
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Customer Ratings: 3.5 (from 17 reviews) |
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Description
"I am a cannibal... No matter into what far corner of my mind I push those words, they flash along the surface of my brain like news along the track that runs around the building at Times Square."--Tobias Schneebaum, Keep the river on your right In 1955, |
Amazon.com
Artist, anthropologist, and author Tobias Schneebaum spent most of a year living with a tribe in the depths of the Peruvian jungle, during which time he tasted human flesh. Forty-five years later, a pair of filmmakers convinced Schneebaum, in his late 70s, to return to the Amazon to discover if any of these tribesmen still exist. Keep the River on Your Right initially seems like it's going to be a highbrow version of a lurid exploitation flick, but instead it becomes both an astonishing portrait of the charming, gracious, and insightful Schneebaum--a Greenwich Village artist who became an explorer of uncharted realms of the world--and an examination of the vast breadth of human cultures; for example, the documentarians cunningly juxtapose a ritual circumcision in New Guinea with a Jewish wedding in New York, making each seem both strange and familiar. An unusual and fascinating documentary. --Bret Fetzer |
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| Product Details |
| Actor: |
- Tobias Schneebaum
- Norman Mailer
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| Aspect Ratio: |
1.33:1 |
| Audience Rating: |
R (Restricted) |
| Binding: |
DVD |
| Director: |
- Laurie Gwen Shapiro
- David Shapiro (II)
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| EAN: |
9780767049689 |
| Format: |
- Color
- DVD-Video
- Full Screen
- NTSC
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| ISBN: |
0767049683 |
| Label: |
New Video Group |
| Languages: |
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| List Price: |
| Amount: |
2495 |
| Currency Code: |
USD |
| Formatted Price: |
$24.95 |
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| Manufacturer: |
New Video Group |
| Number Of Items: |
1 |
| Package Dimensions: |
| Height: |
60 |
| Length: |
750 |
| Weight: |
25 |
| Width: |
510 |
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| Product Group: |
DVD |
| Publisher: |
New Video Group |
| Region Code: |
1 |
| Release Date: |
2002-10-29 |
| Running Time: |
94 |
| Studio: |
New Video Group |
| Theatrical Release Date: |
2000 |
| Title: |
Keep the River on Your Right - A Modern Cannibal Tale |
| UPC: |
767685951934 |
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| Customer Reviews |
Customer Rating: 4
Review Date: 2009-01-05
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
Summary: VERY INTERESTING AND VERY HUMAN STORY
All I can say is watch this one. You will not be disappointed if you enjoy the eclectic and unique. Don't expect anything mainstream or for general mass appeal, because you will not find it in "Keep the river on your right" But if you are here I don't believe that is what you are looking for to begin with.Tobias must have found it very vindicating to encounter the natives he had 45 years prior that recognized him and could finally put to rest all the statements by the EXPERTS that said his tale was a complete or partial fabrication.I have to say I found this gentlemen's level of Honesty refreshing. There seems to be no pretence or lies in this interesting Mans character. He just comes off as " He is what he is and He did what he did" He is not looking for our acceptance or absolution. |
Customer Rating: 4
Review Date: 2008-10-04
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
Summary: Into the Wild
"Keep the River on Your Right" is as much a documentary about an artist's alienation from civilization as it is about cannibalism among the Asmat people of Papua New Guinea. Tobias Schneebaum,recently "out" of the closet,decides to go into the wilderness. He blends in with their ways, even when it means participating in tribal warfare and eating human flesh. Among the Asmat,bisexual relations are common, but Tobias prefers the company of men,and finds a boyfriend when going native.
"Keep the River On Your Right" is a fascinating character study. Schneebaum romanticizes non-Western culture to the point he's okay with cannibalism. He is alienated from the West,so for him all non-Western cultures are good by default. His multiculturalism blinds him to things that are objectively wrong.
Some might draw parallels between Tobias' gayness and cannibalism. In one book,a therapist told her gay teenaged patient that he was like a cannibal in wanting to have his partner's masculinity. That's no bedside manner-- but this documentary might make some unfortunate conclusions.
"Keep the River on your right" is food for thought. |
Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2007-10-26
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
Summary: Extraordinary Life Experiences Of A Brillant Artist
Tobias Schneebaum was a talented young painter whose life was transforned when he went to Peru on a Fulbright scholarship in 1955. Tobias ended up visiting a Catholic mission in the Amazon and from there began a jungle trek to find the cannibalistic Harakambuts. Tobias lived with the tribe for 7 months and even went with them on a violent raid of an enemy tribe where he observed people being killed in warfare. He also participated in a Harakambut ritual which involved the eating of human flesh. Upon his return to the modern world Tobias found himself unable to paint but he continued to follow his interest in primal societies, also spending substanial time with the Asmat tribe of New Guinea.
This documentary recounts Tobias' previous experiences while also taking him back to Peru and New Guinea to visit the tribal societies he had once lived with. The movie also juxtaposes Tobias' life in Manhattan with the life and culture of the tribes. For example, an Indonesian circumsison ritual is depicted as is Tobias' attending of a family celebration on a Jewish holiday. I especially loved the part which showed a New Guinea man, in full tribal regalia, attending an auction to sell tribal art to New York collectors. Tobias translated that the man was enjoying his trip because he liked the culture of New York. Talk about being a "stranger in a strange world" - just amazing!. Still the point seemed to be that the the core qualities we share as fellow human beings are so much stronger and deeply rooted than the superfical differences that separate us.
But really this doc is less an in-depth anthropological study than a celebration of the incredible life of Tobias Schneebaum. Though he gave up painting, Tobias continued throughout his life to exemplify the attitude and perspective of an artist, as he searched endlessly for the type of life force and vitality that he experienced most intensely while livng with the Harakambut and Asmat peoples. I found him to be a fascinating, even heroic, character and hope that other people are able to enjoy the same level of pleasure and insight that I did with this great documentary. |
Customer Rating: 5
Review Date: 2007-09-19
1 out of 3 found this review helpful.
Summary: A spiritual journey, par excellence!
How amazing! Until I opened this DVD I had never heard of Tobias Scheenbaum. How sad that is! And how far ahead of his time he was. How ironic, to watch him tell his story on the Mike Douglas show in the 60s, only to see what a backward nation we were then - and remain, in many ways. How closed-minded, how ignorant and judgemental of the ways of others; how lacking in self-awareness of our own!
This incredible human being walked the journey of the Fool of the Tarot, open to all life had to offer, and willing to learn from even the most emotionally traumatizing of experiences.
Learning from what is called "primitivism" is really quite trendy today, but even at that, most white tourists choose to remain "above the fray," clinging to an air of superiority that is unjustifed and that makes learning impossible.
I loved, loved, loved this documentary. And now I am going to read this man's books, to enhance my own spiritual journey.
Taboo - The Complete First Season (National Geographic)
Taboo - The Complete Second Season (National Geographic)
National Geographic: Explore Your Mind - History and People |
Customer Rating: 4
Review Date: 2007-05-31
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
Summary: Not Really a Cannibal Tale - -
This film is an excellent documentary about the life of the late Tobias Schneebaum, which features a segment on his time in Peru and his cannibalism experience. This film also includes segments about Schneebaum's research into homosexuality in "primitive" societies.
If you are looking for a film focusing on cannibalism, then look elsewhere. |
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