Friday 23rd December

We only had two or three movie sessions for our village friends in the South Pacific islands.  I think if we manage to go back, I would make sure of taking a better thought-out selection for local consumption.  Dances With Wolves was very popular, but it is in fact much more violent than we remembered it being, and maybe there is something more gentle and pleasant.  Maybe some David Attenborough docos??  Any suggestions?

We talked on the radio to David, the skipper of Flamingo Park, the charter boat anchored near Willis Island, providing accommodation for the building contractors.  He, by the way, had been anchored here for sixty days and had not set foot on land even once, so strict are the regulations. So we were very lucky to have been able at least to stand in the shallows before being repelled back to 2XS.

David had spent some time in the islands recently.  He said he often showed movies on deck, on a large screen.  The most popular choice was – Disney cartoons, universally understood, no language required.  He made the mistake on one occasion of showing Jurassic Park to some of the island women who he had employed to clean the boat.  They were absolutely terrified.  Apart from anything else, their particular island was Jehovah’s Witness, and they don’t believe in dinosaurs; they had never heard of such a thing.

We met up with the Americans off the beautiful big yacht, Delos, from Seattle, in Vanuatu and the Solomons.  They too would show movies to villagers.  On windless nights they could project movies onto their big headsail, making a perfect movie screen.  The most popular movie, they said, was Iron Man.  Too funny!  I actually think the Christopher Reeve/Margot Kidder Superman might be a hit, come to think of it…