The Drum and the Mask: Time of the Tubuan 1996

Overview

Award-winning filmmaker and producer Caroline Yacoe's documentary explores the Tubuan, a secret male society of the Talai people of Duke of York Island in Papua New Guinea. Tubuan is also the name of the masks that are worn by the initiates. Because of the secret nature of the rites, the film only depicts the ceremonies and dances viewed by the entire village, not the forbidden ones. The narrator is Melanesian, and a female Talai villager tells of the threat of death to any female who witnesses