A BBC star has revealed the intense physical reaction he had when an attempt was made to ‘push his penis back into his body’.
After more than a decade away from TV, filmmaker and activist Bruce Parry has returned for a reboot of his groundbreaking BBC series Tribe.
For the uninitiated, in the show, he documents himself living with Indigenous communities across the world to learn about their customs. Parry also gets involved in them.
In the upcoming season, the 56-year-old strangles a goat as part of an animal sacrifice ritual, observes as young boys are circumcised and glugs a vomit-inducing drink among other cultural practices. He does this as a respectful observer, not wanting to pass judgment on another way of life, but has refused participation twice, he tells Metro.
‘The first time I said no in my whole TV career was when my dear friend in New Guineatried to push my penis back inside my body and he got halfway,’ Parry recalls of his time with the Kombia men in South Papua. ‘But then I nearly fainted and said, “No more.”‘
The second occasion is in the rebooted Tribe. It is customary, and a sign of beauty, for the Mucubal people in Angola to have their front upper and lower teeth knocked out. Bruce was offered the dental work but declined. ‘I didn’t feel it would necessarily take the story to the next level, from my perspective anyway,’ Parry reasons.
The documentarian does, however, approach any rituals with zero prejudice. ‘Who the hell am I to judge these people anyway?’ he says, listing the ways he contributes to carbon emissions on a daily basis, from heating his home to driving.
Parry continues: ‘[Tribes] have almost no impact on their environment outside their own tiny space. They’re not the problem on the planet. They are not causing climate change.’
Environmental concern was one reason why Parry took a step away from television for 14 years after his last BBC docuseries, Arctic, in 2011. He said that the show, where he witnessed the devastation of climate change, had a profound impact. Parry even stopped flying for a number of years. ‘I didn’t want to just carry on like business as usual,’ he explains.
Parry also wanted to ’embody’ and ‘digest’ what he had learned from Indigenous communities, including a slower pace of life. This prompted a move from Ibiza to rural Wales. But when the BBC came knocking on his door about reviving Tribe, he felt the time was right. Parry wanted to continue his ‘journey’ of discovery and also return to one of his greatest loves and his vocation, storytelling.
But his work has not been immune to controversy. Tribe, which ran for three seasons from 2005 until 2007, was accused of not using scientific practices and of perpetuating harmful stereotypes of exoticism for entertainment. How would he respond to claims that the show potentially interferes with a community?
‘We are going to have an impact. We don’t deny that. But the real impact happening to these people are the forces of globalisation that are just sweeping throughout the world,’ Parry says.
‘We will accelerate some things in some ways, but we’re doing it as ethically as we possibly can, and it is a drop in the ocean compared to these other forces.’
Are you also anticipating any criticism about you as a white man staying with Indigenous communities?
‘Why is a white English straight male doing this?’ Parry replies. ‘Well, that’s the question for the BBC more than me. Obviously, I have given my life, in a way, to trying to share the wisdom of what I have learned from tribal people to the world.
‘That’s what I’ve been doing in the 10 years I wasn’t on television. I didn’t take up all these other jobs that I was offered, because that became my thing. It’s like, “Wow, there are insights here I need to share.”
‘So when the BBC and I communicated again about my return, it felt like a continuation of my existing life. It was a wonderful opportunity for me that I wasn’t going to say no to, and the fact that the BBC have allowed me, I guess, is a testament to the success of the first series and how that worked for them.
‘I don’t know why they’ve allowed me back. It’s a question for them, really. But I feel very happy to continue my work in this way.’
He is conscious that audiences have ‘changed massively’ since the original Tribe series. ‘We all understand much more about colonialism and sex and gender and binary understandings of life and colonialism and cultural appropriation. All of these subjects are now in the mainstream conversation,’ Parry says.
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As for the tribes, Parry says the crew ensure they are ‘happy’ first and foremost to be filmed and are not left feeling as though they have been short-changed. There is also a gift given from the production team before the shoot stars, which is done in a ‘sensitive’ manner. ‘It’s an exchange, rather than this colonial idea of us just coming and taking away,’ he explains.
From his years living with tribes, Parry says he has learned to develop a ‘spiritual’ relationship with the environment; so much so that seeing trees felled now ‘pains’ him. He also learned ways to overcome trauma. ‘The list goes on,’ Parry says. ‘And, yet, I would be lying if I said that I was living fully in line with any of my insights.
‘I’m fraught with hypocrisies and fraught with difficulties that I face on a daily basis. But I think that the more people that also gain these insights, the easier it really is for us to actually make these changes together.’
Tribe starts on Sunday at 9pm on BBC Two and will be available to stream on iPlayer.
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