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PG-Fiji: A Pacific Whim Leads to a Remote Movie Theater
by Anthony Kaufman
August 16th, 2005 4:40 PM
For more than two decades, John Pierson and his wife and longtime business partner Janet Pierson have worked diligently behind the scenes of the New York independent film movement, launching the careers of Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Kevin Smith, and many others. But in director Steve James's latest documentary, Reel Paradise, the Piersons chose to go in front of the lens. "Call me delusional," says John, who executive produced the film with wife Janet and Kevin Smith, "but I never thought it was going to be about our family."
The 51-year-old former film programmer and producer's rep initially expected a documentary on the 180 Meridian movie theater, a 51-year-old ramshackle single-screen showcase in Taveuni, Fiji, which he operated for 12 months in 2002Ð03. "I truly wanted to capture the essence of how fantastic it was to see an audience seeing a movie in a place where there was almost no other media and movies had a primacy that they might have had in 1932," he says. But what Pierson got instead was an uneasy chronicle of cross-cultural collision, Hollywood imperialism, and family dysfunction.
Pierson's benevolent mission to bring free movies to the Fijians became problematic after Jackass unleashed its "decadent" influence on the locals and the "independent films" failed to resonate. "But I improved things immediately," John argues. "They had Scary Movie 2 the night before I showed my first free movie, The Fast and the Furious." A debatable upgrade to be sure, but Pierson explains, "I also found it reassuring that if we showed something that was a total dog, like Men in Black II or Stuart Little 2, the first night would be full, but the second night half empty. They have word of mouth, too, and they could tell when something was a fucking stinker."
The film's dramatic core is not the Meridian, but the family spats, particularly revolving around the Piersons' 16-year-old daughter. "We're sensitive to how Georgia comes across," says John, who admits to differing with director James over how she was portrayed. "It was a huge worry," adds Janet, speaking about her daughter and their then 13-year-old son Wyatt. "My biggest fear was being accused of pimping out the kids and it still is. But they have surprised us with their understanding of how a 110-minute film represents not the totality of who they are." While satisfied with their own representations in the finished product, the movie-savvy Piersons admit they've all been turned into narrative constructs: the devoted mother, the impassioned father, the rebellious teenager, the wise-ass adolescent. "The film has a lot of truth," adds John, "but no film ever has the whole truth."
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I'm seated, with my mother, on a palace veranda, cooled by a breeze from the royal garden. Before us, on a dais, is an empty throne, its arms and legs embossed with polished brass, the back and seat covered in black-and-gold silk. In front of the steps to the dais, there are two columns of people, mostly men, facing one another, seated on carved wooden stools, the cloths they wear wrapped around their chests, leaving their shoulders bare.
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Then there's Hollywood's interpretation of the island...
To see that, check out Reel Paradise, a movie about the saga of American film maker maker John Pierson who in 2002 relocated his family
to Taveuni for a year to show free movies at the venerable Meridian Cinema near Waiyevo.
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Interview with John and Janet Pierson - Reel Paradise
On the latest episode of DVD Talk Radio, DVD Talk Editor Geoffrey Kleinman speaks with John and Janet Pierson about the DVD release for Reel Paradise.
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No Family Is an Island
BY SPENCER PARSONS
The Piersons on 'Reel Paradise'
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Reel Paradise: Review
BY Marc Savlov
When it comes to mid-life crises, some guys buy Porsches, some nail hot blondes,
and some just muddle through. Freshly minted Austinite and famed producer's rep/author/gadabout John Pierson chose to relocate his entire family.
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'Reel Paradise': Moving Theater Experience in Fiji
by Alex Chadwick
American movie buff and independent filmmaker John Pierson moved his family to Fiji in 2002 in search of "the world's most remote theater."
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Reel Paradise: Review
By Roger Ebert
Steve James' new documentary, "Reel Paradise," is about a couple with similar idealism, who also move to a small town and buy the movie theater.
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Reel Paradise: Review
By Kevin Crust
MOVIE REVIEW: A family, a film house and Fiji.
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Taking popcorn fare to paradise
By Merrill Balassone
It's like moviegoing is new again when a producer shows free films in Fiji.
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How an American family moved to Fiji and brought Hollywood along for the ride
By Edward Guthmann
After 25 years of making top-notch indie films, John Pierson needed to escape. So off to Fiji he went, bringing
his family to begin a new life. He documented the experience in "Reel Paradise."
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Keeping It 'Reel' in Paradise
By ANDY KLEIN
In 2002, well known indie film figure John Pierson - producer's rep for She's Gotta Have It, Clerks, and Roger & Me, host of IFC's Split Screen series, and author of Spike, Mike, Slackers
& Dykes - picked up his family and moved to Fiji for a year to show free movies.
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LA Weekly: Film
By Scott Foundas
The final month of Pierson's quixotic quest is chronicled by documentary filmmaker Steve James in Reel Paradise and the result is an enormously warm, comic travelogue about how you can go to the ends of the earth and still not escape from temperamental
teenagers, absentee landlords and the universal language of moving pictures.
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Creating a Free Cinema Off Beaten Track in Fiji
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Steve James's absorbing documentary follows a family to the rural Fijian island of Taveuni, where they showed free
movies in the world's most remote movie theater.
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'Paradise' found in Fiji
By LILY OEI
Indiewood came out in droves Monday to celebrate the Gotham preem of Wellspring's "Reel Paradise."
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A Cinema So Indie It's 5,000 Miles Away
By David Hochman
The Pierson's experiences running a cinema in Fiji are the subject of the documentary "Reel Paradise."
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On Screen and In a New City, Austin Embraces The Pierson Family
By Eugene Hernandez
These days, aside from traveling to a few film festivals to talk about Steve James' Miramax doc about their time in Fiji, "Reel Paradise,"
the Pierson's have become key figures within the Austin film scene.
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Variety - Reel Paradise
By Todd McCarthy
Indie film guru John Pierson goes native, sort of, in "Reel Paradise," an engaging docu about his year-long
stint showing free movies to the locals at what's purportedly
the world's most remote cinema, the 180 Meridian in Taveuni, Fiji.
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Sundance #3: Of heart and humor
By Roger Ebert
Another Sundance doc is also a wonderful portrait of an unexpected lifetime. Steve James, who directed
"Hoop Dreams," is here with "Reel Paradise," the story of a New Yorker named John Pierson, who distributed
and represented the films of Spike Lee, Kevin Smith and many other indie directors,
and hosted "Split Screen," an IFC program on independent films.
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Paradise Found
By Bill Chambers
Hoop-dream master Steve James on his latest film, REEL PARADISE
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Isle of Forgotten Fans
By John Pierson
I recently became the proud owner of the world's most remote movie theater. A year from now, you could be wearing a T-shirt that says, "I saw it at the 180 Meridian Cinema." At least that's how I see it.
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Fiji Favorites: Guys in Dresses
By Dave Kehr
The Piersons are back, and the New York independent film community is happy to see them home.
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