Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Ta Review
by Laura Clifford (lcliffor AT genuity DOT net)May 29th, 2001
KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT: A MODERN CANNIBAL TALE
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In 1950's New York City, Tobias Schneebaum was an artist who became an anthropologist, an out gay man at a time when most were closetted ('He was our house homosexual,' recalls author Norman Mailer). When Schneebaum heard about the Incan ruins of Macchu Pichu, he decided he had to visit Peru. With an art grant, he did so, but a restlessness of spirit, an emptiness of the soul, took him even further. With only the clothes on his back and only a river to guide him, Tobias walked into the jungle for eight days, where he found the headhunting tribe of the Amarekaire and lived among them for a year. Directors David and Laurie Shapiro convinced Schneebaum, at the age of 78, to make the trip once more in "Keep the River to Your Right: a Modern Cannibal Tale."
Tobias Schneebaum is a fascinating subject. Artistic, intellectually curious, a great storyteller, he is above all, a humanist with a spiritually uplifting outlook on life. The Shapiro's not only found a compelling, charismatic subject, but a unique way to capture it, shaping their film the way a great conversationalist talks, playfully following side threads that always weave back into the big picture.
As the film's credits roll, we follow senior citizen Schneebaum through a grocery store, immediately bringing to mind the cannibalism of the title. While this is the sensationalistic aspect that may draw some
viewers in, it becomes insignificant in the scheme of things (even though Schneebaum says that the four words 'I am a cannibal,' haunt him every day). Amusingly, the Shapiros illustrate that as people recoil from this part of Tobias' experience, they inevitably follow up with 'How did it taste?' (Like pork, if you're wondering.)
Today Schneebaum makes his living by lecturing on the Asmat people of Papua New Guinea, another headhunting tribe with whom he lived. Forty-five years later, Tobias travels back, and is not only recognized, but finds his lover, Aipit, whose photograph he had just shown as part of a cruise ship talk. (Asmat men all take a male lover in addition to procreating with women.) The gentle treatment these people show the old man speaks volumes (Schneebaum is worried about breaking his hip a second time) and the filmmakers capture poetic images from such mundane occurrences as feet trudging through mud. It's here, in New Guinea, that we begin to here Tobias' philosophy, as he reflects on finding inner peace after 50. The melancholy projected as he takes leave of Aipit is palpable.
The filmmakers flit about present day New York City, as Tobias visits with Mailer, recalls a childhood exposure to the Wild Man of Borneo at Coney Island and takes a gondola ride in Central Park with a much younger lover.
The return to Peru, which Tobias clearly dreads, caps this lifelong journey with great drama. Schneebaum begins to have nightmares every day. He contemplates death as the camera records his profile in shadow against the stones of Macchu Pichu. It was here that he went on what he thought was a hunting expedition with his friends that turned into the massacre of another village (he never witnessed headhunting in New Guinea). Lightning strikes twice as Tobias is again recognized after almost half a century and welcomed with open arms. The old people make jokes about wearing clothes now while the younger generation tell us that, although their people used to headhunt, they don't like to talk about it - the same reaction we got from the Asmat almost a half a world away!
In the end, Schneebaum professes to be glad that he returned and so are we - not only because we were allowed to take the journey with him, but because in getting to know him, we've come to care about him.
A
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