First Contact (1982)

First Contact
Directed by Robin Anderson and Bob Connelly
1982/Australia
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube (free)

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. – Margaret Mead

“First Contact”  is a fascinating look at the White Man’s contact with a million people in the Papua New Guinea highlands who were living in the Stone Age.

Australian gold prospectors penetrated into the interior of Papua New Guinea in 1930. The people were isolated in settlements and their only outside contact was with enemy tribes with whom they fought for territory. They saw their first wheel on the bottom of an airplane. The appearance of white men, with their metal tools, gramophone, guns and plethora of trade goods, was cause for great astonishment. They wondered if they were being visited by the spirits of their ancestors. Soon enough they would learn that these aliens were not so different from themselves.

The film contains historical footage as well as interviews with Australians and Papua New Guineans who were there at first contact. I lived in Papua New Guinea for three years and just had to choose this movie as my first for 1982. We lived a very privileged existence and it was still scary as hell.