Yap: How Did You Know We'd Like TV?

Yap is a small island, part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which was assigned to America by the United Nations after World War II as a 'strategic trust'. This had far-reaching consequences for the population of Yap. The United States have brought a good deal of prosperity to the island, but critics feel that this is done in a harmful way. After all, there is nothing to compensate for this process, so the Yaps are turning their backs on their own culture, exchanging it for American values and institutions so liberally distributed. Fishing and farming were replaced by canned food and beer, village life by life in slums. Nothing the United States have done for the island did not fit their strategic self-interest. In 1979, during the negotiations leading to the 'Compact of Free Association' with the U.S., Yap got a television station. It broadcasts a constant flow of American programmes and commercials, produced by the somewhat mysterious 'Pacific Taping Company' from Los Angeles. Local opposition against television is gaining strength. Opponents consider this medium a threat to their fragile community, in which outsiders are trying to force different standards and values upon them. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)