MG: The power of money and the corruption of the modern world are truly embodied in their monetary system — our monetary system. Once that enters the fray, once money enters the culture, it’s never the same again. Suddenly, it’s just cash, cash, and cash. And we ran into that everywhere. At the Eunoto, don’t think for a second that we didn’t have to pay out the wazoo for those shots. I mean, the elders had to meet in conference and it was always about, “Well, maybe you should pay us more.”

GALO: That’s unsurprising, considering that these tribes are more integrated with the modern world than they used to be. They’re going to go to town and buy things.

MG: Yeah, it’s an opportunity. Not many opportunities come their way. When you’re talking about the places we went, deep into the Rift Valley where a car going by is the highlight of some child’s week, it really is unbelievably remote. So when a crew like us comes through with three vehicles and all these people, it’s just a giant opportunity. And they’re wise to it. They know what a camera is. So they’re like, “Oh, you want to take our picture do you? You think we’re interesting.” And that’s kind of what the whole movie’s about: Liz was trying not to be that person and wound up being that person anyway.

GALO: Do you worry about a sort of aimlessness in the vacuum of these traditional cultures?

EG: I don’t worry about them. I never have. They will have to deal with these transitions as every society has before them and find their way. I wouldn’t patronize them by worrying about them. As far as that dynamic that we’re talking about, what’s wrong with it and why it’s troubling to people is it takes everyone in that scenario in the midst of a tourist dance — whether you’re the tourist or the dancer — everyone is stripped of their dignity in that moment. Everyone is selling something for cheap and taking something for cheap. It’s unnatural and it makes most people very uncomfortable. It’s probably not unlike the dynamic of prostitution in a way. You would imagine that someone selling something that intimate and personal to themselves would have to find some way of creating an emotional barrier and disconnect. That’s the problem with it. We then lose our natural connection and we perform, and it also makes tourists deeply uncomfortable and embarrassed. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone and seen a tourist dance in some village, and watched as everyone shifts their weight from foot to foot and looks around nervously, knowing that these people are jumping up and down just for them. It wasn’t what they wanted either. So that is, of course, the thing I wanted to avoid. I wanted to have real connections with people, and I wanted them to be honest with me and not do anything for my benefit. If they wanted to include me, you know, how could I be so lucky? That was going to be great. And if they didn’t, that was also a fine answer. But at least whatever the answer was going to be, it was going to be something real and something honest.

MG: I’m not sure that’s the fear, it’s a reality. I guess, it just really raises the question: is there a difference between living in a museum and real, authentic culture? That’s what Liz was saying at the end of the film. She’s like, “What I filmed was a fantasy.” And her photos, to me, are kind of a fantasy. Her photos are this idealized version of these people and these cultures because she had her own trauma to deal with through the war photography that she did; it was a process of healing for her. She had her own way of lionizing and beautifying these cultures and editing anything out that was rather unpleasant. And that’s why her book doesn’t really get into the female circumcisions and that bad stuff as much. She really was trying to do something beautiful for Africa, something that was positive. I’m not sure if that quite answers your question. But the fear, I guess, that it’s all going to be part of a sideshow is not a fear: it’s kind of a reality.

Like I said, the Maasai are doing a great job at preserving [culture], but the church is extremely corrosive. Honestly, the biggest fear is the church for me. The church, for me, represents (and it used to represent even more) the absolute abandonment of all heritages. But I’ll tell you, these guys don’t see it that way. They see the church as their way out. It’s like their ticket to upward mobility. I remember James Mpusia said, “First you’re saved, then you get a job.” He had this system in place and being saved was part of the business plan. That’s where they’re at, culturally. I think that’s incredibly sad, but I know that the churches as of late have been trying to be more sensitive. The new generations of churches are actually starting to embrace the more superficial elements of culture and heritage like the dress, the jumping, and the chanting.

GALO: Were the shots of the burning manyata symbolic?

MG: Yeah, it’s a basic symbolic shot. We struggled with where it would go in the film. I always felt that it had to end with the burn — I couldn’t fit that in with the Eunoto. It just didn’t work there. But I always felt that it needed to be a symbol for the end of something. It’s not necessarily a negative, either. They don’t see it as negative. They burn that thing to the ground quite unceremoniously. It’s not part of the Eunoto, it’s actually weeks later. So it’s not like Burning Man, where the pinnacle of this whole thing is the burning of this effigy. It’s like, “Okay, just burn it.” It really was symbolic to me: It could be new beginnings, but it could also be the end — the end as we know it. It truly is a time in world history when these cultures aren’t going to exist anymore. These are the last of them. That’s kind of why we called it The Last Safari, which just means the last journey. And it’s been over for a while now, but it’s survived in these pockets, but those pockets are very quickly disappearing. So yeah, it was a pretty basic symbol. I thought it was both sad and beautiful.

For more information on “The Last Safari,” including screening opportunities, please visit http://thelastsafarimovie.com/

Cincopa WordPress plugin

Featured image: EAST HAMPTON, NY – OCTOBER 13: Director Matt Goldman (L) and Elizabeth Gilbert attend the 21st Annual Hamptons International Film Festival on October 12, 2013 in East Hampton, New York. Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Hamptons International Film Festival.