DER Documentary
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
by David Shapiro and Laurie Gwen Shapiro
color, 93 min, 2001
Pricing information and conditions
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale explores the life and work of 78-year-old Tobias Schneebaum, controversial artist and author. Schneebaum is best known for the classic non-fiction book Keep the River on Your Right, an autobiographical account of the year he lived with the Amarakaire Indians in the Peruvian Amazon.
In 1955, Schneebaum, a successful painter in New York, was awarded a prestigious Fulbright grant to paint in Peru. He soon abandoned his studies to begin a journey that brought him to the edge of civilization. With only the scant directions "Keep the river on your Right", Schneebaum, naive and ill-equipped, headed off into the uncharted Madre de Dios rainforest of Peru. He had heard rumors of a remote mission and the Amarakaire Indians, a people ethnographically-unknown in the West.
After seven months with no word, the U.S. State Department presumed he was dead. New York headlines told the story of a prominent local painter lost in the Amazon. When Schneebaum reemerged from the jungle a year later, naked and covered in body paint, no one was prepared for the truth: Schneebaum not only lived with the Amarakaire, but he had also participated in a hunting raid which culminated in killing and cannibalism. It took fifteen years for Schneebaum to reveal all of what happened to him in the unforgettable and beautifully written memoir, Keep the River on Your Right, still in print thirty years later. But he freely admits he has never exorcised the tormenting memory of his stay in the Amazon.
After Peru, Schneebaum became the world's foremost expert on the Asmat, a tribe in Indonesian New Guinea. The film shows Schneebaum at work, giving frank lectures about art and tribal homosexuality against the unlikely backdrop of a luxury cruise ship en route to New Guinea. The cruise makes a stop at an Indonesian island which unexpectedly happens to be in the middle of a ritual circumcision ceremony. Schneebaum and the crew leave the cruise, and head into the remote interior of Asmat to try and find Schneebaum's sexual partner and cultural informant, Aipit, who Schneebaum for many years has presumed to be dead.
Schneebaum's past blends with his present when, back in New York City, after much coaxing from the two film directors, he finally agrees to return to Peru forty-five years after his haunting experience in the Amazon. Despite his reservations, Schneebaum is drawn back, to confirm if the Amarakaire he knew survived, and to confront the nightmares he has pushed out of his head. The journey back through the Amazon at first seems like a wild goose chase, but after careful detective work by Schneebaum and the crew, the trip yields more than Schneebaum could possibly have anticipated: six members of the original hunting party who are as shocked to see Schneebaum as he is to see them.
"Keep The River is a remarkable film!" -Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
"An absorbing combo of art, anthro and Mondo Cane!" -Ed Rampell, Variety
"Engaging, colorful, intriguing!" -Lawrence Van Gelder, The New York Times
..."the two Shapiros have composed a heartfelt, illuminating film " expect a deliciously entertaining documentary." -Brandon Judell, Indiewire
Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
Stella Artois Audience Award Citation - Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia
Best Documentary, Newport Beach Film Festival, California
Truer Than Fiction award from IFP/West (The Independent Feature
Project West who bring you the Independent Spirit Awards)
The Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
Best Documentary (Golden Starfish Award) Hamptons International Film Festival, 2000
Special Critics Award Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, 2000
Honorable Mention, Audience Prize - Docfest, New York International Documentary Festival, 2000
Audience Citation, Seattle International Film Festival, 2000
Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Athens International Film Festival, Greece 2001
Halifax Film Festival, Canada, 2001
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada, 2000
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Feature Competition), NL, 2000
Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, USA, 2000
Seattle International Film Festival, USA, 2000
New York International Documentary Festival (Docfest), USA, 2000
Hamptons International Film Festival, USA, 2000
Its All True! Documentary Film Festival, Brazil, 2001
Mountain Film Festival - Telluride, Colorado, 2001
Atlanta Film and Video Festival, USA, 2001
Halfway to Hollywood Film Festival Kansas City, 2001
Newport Beach Film Festival, California, 2001
San Francisco International Film Festival, 2001
