Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale

Director: David and Laurie Shapiro
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 2.0

Not exactly sure what the 'point' is: the filmmakers take painter-turned-anthropologist Tobias Schneebaum back to the primitive village he was once a member of, mix in TV interviews and footage of the current life he leads as a cruise-ship speaker … and that's about it. The filmmakers seem more interested in his homosexuality than anything, making sure to ogle him while he's kissing or touching the natives (they also conveniently include Super 8mm footage Schneebaum took which appear to be preoccupied with exposed male genitalia). His 'reunion' with the old tribe is anti-climactic since he's too busy playing the curmudgeon to say anything interesting and all of his old friends he once knew are dead (he whines that he 'wants to go home' a lot). The "cannibal" part of the title is just sensationalism; he dismisses most questions about his eating human flesh with 'I don't remember' (though in the 80's he said it tasted 'like pork'). The interviews with Charlie Rose and Mike Douglas seem to be a lot more informative than this (little is made of the artistic side of his tenure), and I would much rather watch them instead.