Pentecost Island films
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: HSFA 1975.1.3
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Müller, Kal, 1939-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Kal Muller films and photographs of Vanuatu (New Hebrides)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Film reels (46 minutes, color silent; 1,428 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1971
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1975.01, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Full film record shot on Pentecost Island among the Bunlap. Footage documents a naghol or "land diving ceremony." During these ceremonies, men dive from hundred foot naghols (towers) which are specially constructed for each event and seen to represent the body of a spirit. The ritual is held annually to insure the fertility of the yams. Although celebrated by other adjacent groups, the Bunlap people of Pentecost Island hold principal rights over these ceremonies which, as such, remain central to their corporate identity. 

Scenes include men selecting and cutting vines with machetes to be used by "land divers"; various close-up and mid-range angle shots of the tower as divers climb and mount their perchers; the technique by which vines are tied to the diver's ankles, the narrow platforms from which men dive, the effigies placed at the base of the tower; various angled shots of men diving from their perches, the construction of these narrow platforms and the workings by which they absorb the energy of the plunging diver upon impact; views of spectators below; shots from the tower of a dance sequence beneath the tower performed by women in ceremonial dress; scenes of a council of men engaged in animated discussion and argument; and miscellaneous footage of a native affixing penis wrapper and waist band; and a man demonstrating the technique of decorating and dying a woven armband; casual interactions between mothers and children, and children at play. 

Kal Muller and Robert Gardner used this footage in the 1972 documentary film Land-Divers of Melanesia.