WHETHER it was a projectionist drunk on homemade grog or faulty wiring that made equipment go up in smoke, independent film producer John Pierson was in for a challenge when he took over a rickety 288-seat movie theater on Fiji's remote island of Taveuni.
At first, the New York transplant was comforted by the locals who reassured him with their oft-repeated slogan -- "no worries." That is, until he deciphered the code.
"What it really meant was, 'This isn't going to work, but just don't worry about it,' " Pierson said. Pierson first came across the 180 Meridian Cinema in 2000, while searching for the world's most remote theater for an episode of his Independent Film Channel documentary show, "Split Screen." (The 180 Meridian Cinema is 5,000 miles from Hollywood.)
Word of mouth, known on the island as "coconut wireless," that Pierson would be holding a free screening drew a throng of Fijians, many of whom make the equivalent of about $20 a month and rarely splurge on movies. The film? The Three Stooges' short "Some More of Samoa," in which natives try to boil Curly for dinner. The audience reacted with exuberant laughter verging on pandemonium.
"It was an out-of-body experience," Pierson said.
Pierson said he decided right then and there that he'd return to Taveuni and bring more movies with him. The documentary "Reel Paradise," which opens Friday in Los Angeles, tells that tale.
A player in the independent film industry in the late 1980s, working with filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Michael Moore and Kevin Smith, Pierson recalled that in the years before his Fiji visit he'd become jaded about independent films. They were becoming less defined as a genre and more and more featured big-name Hollywood casts.
Fiji seemed like the perfect place to recharge and gain some perspective.
Pierson convinced his wife and business partner, Janet, and their teenage children, Georgia and Wyatt, to join him on a yearlong retreat to the remote island. Pierson relied on contributions from Smith, "South Park's" Matt Stone and Haxan Films, producers of the "Blair Witch Project," to help him finance free screenings for a year.
Soon, audiences at 180 Meridian, where shutters let the island breeze through and paintings of Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny grace the facade, were howling with laughter at "Jackass: The Movie" and caught up in the action of "The Scorpion King."
