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Jan 24 movie: Keep The River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale. Independant Film Channel has some annoying habits, like running the same movies over and over. But I'm thrilled with them for having done "Reality Night" a couple of days ago, allowing me to see Lost in La Mancha and this documentary about Tobias Schneebaum, the artist/anthropologist who lived with cannibals in Peru and New Guinea in the 60s. The movie shows him returning to the communities he had lived in and meeting people who remembered him; they also show him in his native environment of New York. The movie is compelling because Scheebaum is such a compelling subject. There's a brief allusion to accusations that he compromised his anthropoloical work by "going native," and there's probably another movie there, but for the most part the filmmakers get out of the way and let Schneebaum's nostalgic travels be the focus.

Probably the most sensational part of the movie was Schneebaum's struggle to come to terms with having participated in an attack on another village and a cannibalistic ritual while in Peru. But for me the most affecting moment was his reunion with an old friend/lover in New Guinea who he thought was dead. The man kisses him easily, as if they've only been apart for a few months, but Schneebaum holds back, saying that he couldn't stand the pain of losing the relationship again. Moments like that, with such genuine emotion, are why I love documentaries.