In Papua New Guinea, where over three quarters of the population cannot be reached by the regular advertising mediums of television, radio or print, "the market" must be developed by other means. Small theater groups travel the remote highlands performing soap operas devised around advertising messages for a variety of products.

ADVERTISING MISSIONARIES follows the mission of one theater company to bring the consumer revolution to the people of the highlands.

In bigger and more modern towns, the company plugs the qualities of farming products or car parts. In the more remote villages, a set is unfolded on the back of a flat-bed truck, portraying a modern Western living-room where the advantages of Coca-Cola, Colgate, clothing, canned food, and washing powder are touted.

The film observes the impact of the advertising theater on a previously "untouched" village in the remote valley of Yaluba, where it enters the lives of Aluago, Tintiba and their two children. We see the village before, during and after first contact by the new missionaries -- and what happens as a result of their visit.

Select Accolades

• 1997 Margaret Mead Film Festival
• 1997 Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Musée de l'Homme
• 1996 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
• Nominated for the 1997 Dendy Award
• Finalist, 1997 Banff Festival of Mountain Films