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Trouble in paradise
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Survivor meets CINEMA PARADISO in this wonderfully entertaining documentary about a film fanatic's quest to bring Hollywood movies to a remote South Sea island. Well-known on the independent-film circuit as the dedicated producer's rep who once put up the 10 grand needed to get SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT and its director Spike Lee's career off the ground, John Pierson is a film geek's geek. How geeky? Years before penning Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes, his memoir recounting the years he spent working behind the scenes with such indie luminaries as Lee, Michael Moore and Richard Linklater, Pierson and his wife-to-be, Janet, not only worked at Manhattan's Film Forum, they tied the knot at the venerable movie mecca (the bride and groom screened Buster Keaton's SEVEN CHANCES at the reception). But it was while shooting an episode of Split Screen, the IFC Channel series Pierson and Janet created, that their lives took a totally unforeseen turn. The topic was the search for the most remote movie house in the world, a quest that ended on the beautiful ‹ and tiny ‹ Fijian island of Taveuni, where a 50-year-old, 288-seat theater named the 180 Meridian Cinema stands not far from the ocean's edge. Smitten with the idea of running a cinema in such an unlikely locale, Pierson convinced Janet to pack up their two kids, 13-year-old Wyatt and 15-year-old Georgia, and, for one year, trade life in the suburban enclave of Garrison, N.Y., for an adventure in the leafy wilds of Fiji, where Pierson hoped to screen free movies for the local and very poor population. Luckily for us, Pierson took along filmmaker Steve James (HOOP DREAMS), and the end result is a fascinating portrait of a prickly personality whose mad plan to bring X-2, the Three Stooges and everyone's favorite, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (no artsy-fartsy indie films for Fiji) to the South Seas would have Werner Herzog scrambling for his camera. As weeks turn into months, Pierson finds himself contending with not just an unreliable projector and an even more unreliable projectionist, but a shady Australian landlord, two robberies, dengue fever, angry Christian missionaries and, most daunting of all, a teenage daughter with a few wild oats to sow. While Pierson rants and fumes, the gentler Janet raises interesting questions about the effects JACKASS might have on the impressionable youth of Fiji, and helps turn what might simply have been a fun documentary about a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson into a thoughtful critique on the wholesale exportation of American culture. Now if only reality television were this good. ‹ Ken Fox
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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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