First Contact (Highlands Trilogy) - PREVIEW

Purchase: http://www.der.org/films/first-contac... This is the classic film of cultural confrontation that is as compelling today as when it was first released over 20 years ago.

When Columbus and Cortez ventured into the New World there was no camera to record the drama of this first encounter. But, in 1930, when the Leahy brothers penetrated the interior of New Guinea in search of gold, they carried a movie camera. Thus they captured on film their unexpected confrontation with thousands of Stone Age people who had no concept of human life beyond their valleys. This amazing footage forms the basis of FIRST CONTACT.

Yet there is more to this extraordinary film than the footage that was recovered. Fifty years later some of the participants are still alive and vividly recall their unique experience. The Papuans tell how they thought the white men were their ancestors, bleached by the sun and returned from the dead. They were amazed at the artifacts of 20th century life such as tin cans, phonographs and airplanes. When shown their younger, innocent selves in the found footage, they recall the darker side of their relationship with these mysterious beings with devastating weapons.

Australian Dan Leahy describes his fear at being outnumbered by primitive looking people with whom he could not speak. He felt he had to dominate them for his own survival and to continue his quest for gold. FIRST CONTACT is one of those rare films that holds an audience spell-bound. Humor and pathos are combined in this classic story of colonialism, told by the people who were there.

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  Education

[corvusluna]

geez, that old vid near the beginning talking about how good the 'barbarian natives' had it now that the europeans were there, talk about ethnocentrism...

[smoochie63]

To say they had a peaceful existence is simply not true. This is the fantasy image that the West has created of the 'noble savage', that lived in some kind of village utopia, free of violence and material desires etc; basically everything the West is not. PNG was in fact characterised by almost constant inter clan warfare prior to European influence.

[Dylan Ries]

who ever has the strongest weapons writes history

[Epsilonsama]

Tribal Walfare is anything but noble. Most of the time they dont go to war for resources but for revenge or stealing the women of another tribe.

[Matto Niyazi]

I think the point is that many people beleive that could change, and there is point changing it. If we just admit our flaws and move on nothing will change

[scottclements78]

Since when has Australia been in Europe?

[Deerslayer2k9]

Exactly. Master-Slave human relations have been since the dawn of time and a lot of these islands enslaved their own people and sold them to the developed countries so in comparison they are like the judas they sold their own people out and were punished for it. The big fish eat the little fish and that is that. People are just meek and once the meek entirely inherit the earth we are fucked. This is not biblical profecy as much as it is common sense. We are all fucked because we are stupid.

[dumbapain]

The music is eerie......thanks for the brief look into the past....Such is the story of civilisation. It looking back remember to move forward, otherwise don't look back.

[Antipodean33]

As it is with most tribal ppl's around the world. We even see it with ourselves in western countries. The difference with these ppl fighting against the neighbouring clan is simply a survival instinct. You must hold your patch of land otherwise you get pushed off it and have nowhere to survive. There is respect between the tribes though as no one wants conflict if it can be avoided

[sunspats]

mr.aki

[mooch9668]

European civilization. There is no substitute.

[Israel Feiler]

nice video