Thegoona-goona epic is a particular type of native-cultureexploitation film set in remote parts of the Far East, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and the South Pacific. These include documentaries (often of questionable authenticity) and dramas, both of which rely heavily ontravelogue andstock footage scenes (and sometimes fabricated scenes) ofsemi-nude native peoples performing exotic rituals and customs. The genre was popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
In Hollywood trade magazines "goona-goona" was a descriptive word for films or photos showing women of color with bare breasts, usually in a supposed spirit of ethnographic interest.[1] The use of the term as a film genre derives from the 1932 filmGoona-Goona, An Authentic Melodrama of the Island of Bali byAndre Roosevelt andArmand Denis.[2] The term originates fromguna-guna, an Indonesian word for witchcraft.[3]
The genre made use oforientalist andexoticist themes.[3] The semi-pornographic nature of the genre provided scandal for the conservative American general audiences of the 1920s and 1930s, which made it popular.[4] Additionally, the genre grew during a time when Southeast Asia, particularlyBali, had become a popular destination among the Western public due to its perception as an "Eastern Paradise" compared to war-torn Western Europe.[5] As western audiences began consuming more pornography, and as many colonized nations sought independence in the post-war era, the genre became obsolete.[4]
