Presentation Title
Lost & Found: Samuel Fuller’s Tigrero and Accidental Ethnography
Presentation Type
Paper
Abstract
In 1954, Darryl Zanuck commissioned Samuel Fuller to journey to the Amazon and shoot footage of the Karaja tribe, around which the director would construct a screenplay based upon the life of Sasha Siemel, a big game hunter of note. Zanuck had optioned Siemel’s best-selling autobiography, Tigrero. Although John Wayne and Ava Gardner were soon attached to the project, executives at Fox would not sanction a shoot in such a dangerous location. The project was set aside and forgotten.
Nearly 40 years after his visit to Brazil, Fuller would return to the Karaja tribe. Out of this experience came a documentary, Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made (1994), by Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki. The result is equal parts documentary and ethnography, serving as a time capsule for the Karaja–many of whom recognized long-deceased relatives in the footage shown to them–demonstrating just how much their culture had changed in four decades. This paper examines how the failed initial project eventually yielded a fascinating insight into the vicissitudes of Hollywood production as well as an accidental ethnographic study of the Karaja and their change over time.
Lost & Found: Samuel Fuller’s Tigrero and Accidental Ethnography
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In 1954, Darryl Zanuck commissioned Samuel Fuller to journey to the Amazon and shoot footage of the Karaja tribe, around which the director would construct a screenplay based upon the life of Sasha Siemel, a big game hunter of note. Zanuck had optioned Siemel’s best-selling autobiography, Tigrero. Although John Wayne and Ava Gardner were soon attached to the project, executives at Fox would not sanction a shoot in such a dangerous location. The project was set aside and forgotten.
Nearly 40 years after his visit to Brazil, Fuller would return to the Karaja tribe. Out of this experience came a documentary, Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made (1994), by Finnish director Mika Kaurismaki. The result is equal parts documentary and ethnography, serving as a time capsule for the Karaja–many of whom recognized long-deceased relatives in the footage shown to them–demonstrating just how much their culture had changed in four decades. This paper examines how the failed initial project eventually yielded a fascinating insight into the vicissitudes of Hollywood production as well as an accidental ethnographic study of the Karaja and their change over time.