Stori Tumbuna

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

“This is a story of the Lak people. It's also a story of how I came to know the people of the region and how my story became forever woven into their own… I was to become enmeshed in events that resulted in bloodshed and death. What's more, I was held responsible.”

In 2001, Paul Wolffram, a cultural researcher, travelled to one of the most isolated and unique corners of the earth. He eventually spent over two years living and working among the Lak people in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. As his relationships with the people grew he began to glimpse a hidden reality, a dark and menacing history that loomed over his host community. Over time the sense that something is amiss grows. As his curiosity deepens Paul brings to light dark secrets that set in motion a compelling and deadly set of events.

“I know of no more successful or ingenious film that draws the viewer into another life-world while keeping faith with the tenor of its traditional narratives and respecting the lived experience of his/her interlocutors.”
— Michael Jackson, Harvard University

“It is clear that the community was consulted and that local narrative strategies were used. The difference between Melanesian and Western perceptions of myth are at the heart of the matter, and Wolffram has taken a very unorthodox approach to explore this theme in collaboration with the people he set out to "document."”
— Mark Eby, American Anthropologist

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Best Audiovisual Documentation, XXVII Pärnu Film Festival, Estonia, 2013

Official Selection, New Zealand International Film Festival, 2011

Official Selection, Jean Rouch Festival International, 2011

Official Selection, Gottingen Ethnographic Film Festival, 2012

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Stori Tumbuna