Midcentury America built fake paradise in their backyards—then burned it down.
Armchair traveling to the most exotic chapter of American pop culture! Come fly with us and relive the rise and fall of polynesian pop. Be there. See the places and the people. Hear the stories from eye witnesses and real tiki aficionados like Martin Denny, Leroy Schmaltz & Bob van Oosting, Eric Askew, the Bali Hai Boys, Sven Kirsten, Otto von Stroheim, Shag, Beachbum Berry and many more. The DVD OF TIKI, Vol. I “Paradise Lost” explores the origins of the myth of the Souths Seas paradise and follows a nation on their transition from the puritan 1950s to the sexual revolution of the 70s. The Sixties, the heyday of Tiki offered wild island lifestyle with exotic sounds and intoxicating concoctions without endangering the given moral and social rules at that time.
Direction
Loving archival excavation by a true believer.
Production
Incredible access to original tiki architects and survivors.
Score
Martin Denny's exotica soundtrack is the main character.
Director
Jochen Hirschfeld
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tiki culture emerged from WWII Pacific veterans and postwar prosperity anxiety—Americans built literal islands in their suburbs while ignoring actual Pacific colonialism.
Director Jochen Hirschfeld is German, making this a European excavation of deeply American weirdness—like Werner Herzog doing Disneyland.
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