Video night in Nuku'alofa: Disjuncture and Difference on Tongan Screens

Abstract

On June 27th 2004, ,Bollywood, became ,Pollywood, when a team made up almost entirely of Polynesians won an Indian dance competition held for Auckland high school. While the win seemed to surprise and amuse Indian journalists, the appeal of Bollywood films among diasporic Pacific Island communities and in island nations themselves has been a relatively open ,secret,. Nevertheless, it is a phenomenon that has not attracted much critical attention, partly because of a pre-occupation with national cinema (Higson 1989), and indigenous self-determination among researchers of visual media in the Pacific (Hereniko 1999, Douglas 1994, Mawyer 1998,). These studies privilege motion picture production rather than its consumption. While there are justifiable reasons to emphasize production, particularly in a region that has been significantly disadvantaged by western media hegemonies, contemporary research into the distribution and consumption of moving imagery in the Pacific is long overdue. This paper looks at the popularity of Bollywood films in Nuku,alofa Tonga, tracing the circuits of exchange that supply video shops with dvds, and examining how Bollywood and perhaps its most recent competition (Gulong ng Palad, a Filipino soap opera) exemplify disjunctures in the global cultural economy.