First Contact (1983 film)

First Contact is a 1983 documentary by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson which recounts the discovery of a flourishing native population in the interior highlands of New Guinea in 1930 in what had been thought to be an uninhabited area. It is based on the book of the same name by the same authors. Inhabitants of the region and surviving members of the Leahy brothers gold prospecting party recount their astonishment at this unforeseen meeting. The film includes still photographs taken by a member of the expedition and contemporary footage of the islands terrain. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It won Best Feature Documentary at the 1983 Australian Film Institute Awards.

Joe Leahys Neighbours and Black Harvest pick up the Leahy story started in First Contact but in the next generation with Michael Leahys mixedrace son, Joe Leahy, and his family. These two films document Joe Leahys life as owner and manager of two coffee plantations on land acquired in controversial circumstances from the Ganiga tribe. Much of the drama in the two films stem from the implications and expectations of these two plantations, that is, from conflicts about ownership both within the Ganiga people and between the Ganiga and Leahy. The films chart a society in transition from a tribal life to a western capitalist one.

Source: Wikipedia