Video vs. cinema war in Vanuatu

While the public is having fun in front of video sets and in the cinema houses, a war is raging for the upper hand between the up-and-coming video industry and the good old cinema houses in Vanuatu. And already, some observers are predicting the downfall of the latter.

The video industry came to Vanuatu only three years ago and there are already about 13

video shops now in operation in the capital alone, with the pos siblity of establishing many more in future.

Sound Centre’s Managing Director lan Beeson terms the video industry the “biggest growing market in Vila”, and reckons that there are many more video shops in Vila per head of population than in other countries in the Pacific.

The cost of a video set

exceeds 100,000 Vatu (about $A1000) but many shops such as South Pacific Traders and Sound Centre are flexible with their regular customers in re nting their sets to them for 10,000 Vatu per month or requesting a deposit of 20,000 Vatu then giving the sets to their customers to pay an agreed amount every month until the total cost is paid up.

Mr Beeson denies dealing in

horror or sex material and assures parents that children’s cassettes are really suitable for viewing by children.

“The most popular cassettes in Australia are on sex and violence. Vanuatu is almost completely free of sex crimes because we don’t sell such cassettes, and I don’t think people, especially children, should be exposed to such movies,” says Mr Beeson.

Mr Fung Kuei says he sells 80 per cent of his video sets to tourists and 20 per cent to locals, and admits that spare parts and repair services are quite costly.

He feels that the introduction of the video industry has helped to keep families together at home instead of “racing to the cinema”.

Most shopowners say that the most popular cassettes in Vanuatu are of action movies, Kung Fu, cowboys, wars, de tective stories and so on.

Finance Ministry First Secre tary George Paokoa, views the industry with mixed feelings.

While it is good for the homes, he feels parents must be careful about encouraging their chil dren to watch video movies.

“1 think it has already affected some kids; they fail their exams because they spend their after-school hours watch ing video instead of doing their homework”.

A senior Customs official in Vila admits the occasional discovery of “some tapes which we consider to be illegal”. He defines the word illegal to mean “violence” and “explicit sex”.

The Vanuatu Christian Council, which is the major pressure group against the screening of naked bodies and

violence, comes up against a wall when dealing with video cassettes because there is no law as yet to govern the video industry. The Film Censorship Board relies on Joint Regula tion Number 16 of 1973 which was introduced for cinemas only years before video was introduced. This means that there is still a loophole for the imaginative video shopowner.

A member of the Censorship Board sees the need to re examine Joint Regulation Num ber 16 and see if it can be amended to govern video as well as the cinema. An official from the Ministry of Home Affairs gives his assurance that his ministry will look into the suggestion.

Even though mindful of the bad effects of video, an in ternational traveller in Vanuatu just back from Europe is opti mistic about the issue and says video is important for children’s ability training. He says it is up to parents to select the appropriate cassettes for their children, and that, introducing their children at an early age to video and other electronic equipment, will certainly help them to think faster than their friends in class.

On a national scale, the in stant usability of the video system, could be a most useful tool in both adult and child education in Vanuatu.

Whatever eventually hap pens between the battling in dustries, Port-Vila’s three cine mas; Cine Hickson, Cine Pacifi que, and the Drive-in, and their sister house in Santo, are still on their toes and showing no sign of surrender. From Tam- Tam, Port-Vila, Vanuatu.