Before MGM began distributing James A. Fitzpatrick's Traveltalks in glorious Technicolor, they offered this black-and-white travelogue, taking their audience to the island of Tahiti in this short subject.
We get to see the natives make carrying cases out of palm leaves, climbing trees to get coconuts, and traveling in outrigger canoes to dive for octopi and pearls. I didn't understand that they made more money selling the shells for mother-of-pearl than the pearls themselves, so that's something I learned. Nice.
For some reason, the people were shot at undercranked speeds, making their actions appear faster than life. I believe this was intended to make them seem more skilled at their tasks and make the sequence where there's a staged underwater accident more exciting. I found it simply bizarre, but a contemporary audience might not have caught on to the technique.
