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REEL PARADISE
There's trouble in Reel Paradise for indie film guru John Pierson and his family, the outspoken and volatile subjects of Steve James's engaging, warts-and-all documentary. The acclaimed director of Hoop Dreams trains his cameras on the frequently embattled Pierson clan during the last month of their yearlong stay on the remote Fiji island of Taveuni. Like some cinematic missionary, Pierson dragged his wife and two mouthy kids to Taveuni to show free movies to the natives in the island's sole movie theater. The funny and eye-opening result mostly succeeds at illuminating the vast cultural differences between the Piersons and the islanders, without patronizing or romanticizing Fiji culture.
One of the prime movers and shakers behind American independent cinema, the skinny, owlish Pierson first learned of Fiji's 180 Meridian Cinema while hosting Split Screen on the Independent Film Channel. The Fijian's joyous, uninhibited reaction to an old Three Stooges short, which had been running since the theater's opening in 1954, inspired Pierson to leave New York for faraway Taveuni. Here, on this lushly undeveloped and poverty-stricken island 25 miles long and eight miles wide, Pierson buys the 180 Meridian Cinema and kicks off a year-long festival of free movies. Thanks to his connections, Pierson is able to get prints of everything from major studio films to Bollywood favorites (Indo-Fijians, the descendents of Indian indentured servants, make up Fiji's upper class). Mostly steering clear of serious dramas and art films, Pierson instead schedules a program heavy on goofy comedies and action-adventure films.
But while getting the films is comparatively easy, Pierson has a much more difficult time finding a reliable projectionist—or staying on good terms with the local Catholic priests, who believe that he's corrupting the natives with free movies like Jackass: The Movie. As Pierson battles both the church and a debilitating bout of dengue fever, his wife, Janet, takes a more diplomatic approach to the locals—a position she finds hard to maintain once their house is robbed, probably by someone they know. Meanwhile, their 16-year-old daughter Georgia is in full-on rebellious mode; and 13-year-old son Wyatt struggles to find his niche as the sole "European" (as he's called) in the local school. Somehow, despite all the conflicts and setbacks, Pierson manages to keep the 180 Meridian Cinema running to nearly packed houses every screening.
If the documentary's focus on the Piersons' domestic strife sometimes evokes reality television at its most loudly melodramatic, James is careful not to let the family's Sturm und Drang completely overwhelm Reel Paradise. Through interviews with both the Piersons and the people of Taveuni, James touches on everything from Western cultural influences in Fiji to cinema's enduring hold on our collective imagination. Watching the islanders double over with laughter during a screening of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr calls to mind a similar scene in Preston Sturges' classic Sullivan's Travels, when chain gang inmates laugh away their troubles watching a cartoon.
Yet in the end, the most interesting scenes in Reel Paradise reveal how each of the Piersons adjust to their exotic surroundings. You'd think the Pierson kids, Georgia and Wyatt, would have the most difficult time, but they actually have a far easier time than either of their parents—especially their father. Whereas his children immerse themselves in Fiji culture and befriend many of the islanders, John is so consumed by running the 180 Meridian Cinema that he barely acquaints himself with local customs. And while he may not embody the stereotypical "Ugly American" abroad, he sometimes comes across as a bit too imperious in his dealings with the islanders. What's never in doubt is his passion for movies—or the sheer pleasure he derives from introducing the islanders to some of his favorite films, like the Keaton masterpiece.
A hit at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Reel Paradise is an entertaining, true-life "fish out of water" story worth catching on the big screen.
— TIM KNIGHT
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I'm seated, with my mother, on a palace veranda, cooled by a breeze from the royal garden. Before us, on a dais, is an empty throne, its arms and legs embossed with polished brass, the back and seat covered in black-and-gold silk. In front of the steps to the dais, there are two columns of people, mostly men, facing one another, seated on carved wooden stools, the cloths they wear wrapped around their chests, leaving their shoulders bare.
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Then there's Hollywood's interpretation of the island...
To see that, check out Reel Paradise, a movie about the saga of American film maker maker John Pierson who in 2002 relocated his family
to Taveuni for a year to show free movies at the venerable Meridian Cinema near Waiyevo.
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Interview with John and Janet Pierson - Reel Paradise
On the latest episode of DVD Talk Radio, DVD Talk Editor Geoffrey Kleinman speaks with John and Janet Pierson about the DVD release for Reel Paradise.
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No Family Is an Island
BY SPENCER PARSONS
The Piersons on 'Reel Paradise'
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Reel Paradise: Review
BY Marc Savlov
When it comes to mid-life crises, some guys buy Porsches, some nail hot blondes,
and some just muddle through. Freshly minted Austinite and famed producer's rep/author/gadabout John Pierson chose to relocate his entire family.
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'Reel Paradise': Moving Theater Experience in Fiji
by Alex Chadwick
American movie buff and independent filmmaker John Pierson moved his family to Fiji in 2002 in search of "the world's most remote theater."
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Reel Paradise: Review
By Roger Ebert
Steve James' new documentary, "Reel Paradise," is about a couple with similar idealism, who also move to a small town and buy the movie theater.
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Reel Paradise: Review
By Kevin Crust
MOVIE REVIEW: A family, a film house and Fiji.
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Taking popcorn fare to paradise
By Merrill Balassone
It's like moviegoing is new again when a producer shows free films in Fiji.
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How an American family moved to Fiji and brought Hollywood along for the ride
By Edward Guthmann
After 25 years of making top-notch indie films, John Pierson needed to escape. So off to Fiji he went, bringing
his family to begin a new life. He documented the experience in "Reel Paradise."
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Keeping It 'Reel' in Paradise
By ANDY KLEIN
In 2002, well known indie film figure John Pierson - producer's rep for She's Gotta Have It, Clerks, and Roger & Me, host of IFC's Split Screen series, and author of Spike, Mike, Slackers
& Dykes - picked up his family and moved to Fiji for a year to show free movies.
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LA Weekly: Film
By Scott Foundas
The final month of Pierson's quixotic quest is chronicled by documentary filmmaker Steve James in Reel Paradise and the result is an enormously warm, comic travelogue about how you can go to the ends of the earth and still not escape from temperamental
teenagers, absentee landlords and the universal language of moving pictures.
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Creating a Free Cinema Off Beaten Track in Fiji
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Steve James's absorbing documentary follows a family to the rural Fijian island of Taveuni, where they showed free
movies in the world's most remote movie theater.
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'Paradise' found in Fiji
By LILY OEI
Indiewood came out in droves Monday to celebrate the Gotham preem of Wellspring's "Reel Paradise."
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A Cinema So Indie It's 5,000 Miles Away
By David Hochman
The Pierson's experiences running a cinema in Fiji are the subject of the documentary "Reel Paradise."
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On Screen and In a New City, Austin Embraces The Pierson Family
By Eugene Hernandez
These days, aside from traveling to a few film festivals to talk about Steve James' Miramax doc about their time in Fiji, "Reel Paradise,"
the Pierson's have become key figures within the Austin film scene.
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Variety - Reel Paradise
By Todd McCarthy
Indie film guru John Pierson goes native, sort of, in "Reel Paradise," an engaging docu about his year-long
stint showing free movies to the locals at what's purportedly
the world's most remote cinema, the 180 Meridian in Taveuni, Fiji.
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Sundance #3: Of heart and humor
By Roger Ebert
Another Sundance doc is also a wonderful portrait of an unexpected lifetime. Steve James, who directed
"Hoop Dreams," is here with "Reel Paradise," the story of a New Yorker named John Pierson, who distributed
and represented the films of Spike Lee, Kevin Smith and many other indie directors,
and hosted "Split Screen," an IFC program on independent films.
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Paradise Found
By Bill Chambers
Hoop-dream master Steve James on his latest film, REEL PARADISE
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Isle of Forgotten Fans
By John Pierson
I recently became the proud owner of the world's most remote movie theater. A year from now, you could be wearing a T-shirt that says, "I saw it at the 180 Meridian Cinema." At least that's how I see it.
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Fiji Favorites: Guys in Dresses
By Dave Kehr
The Piersons are back, and the New York independent film community is happy to see them home.
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