The Search for Michael Rockefeller

Filmmaker Fraser Heston, son of acting legend Charlton Heston, directed this peculiar documentary about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in 1961. Rockefeller, the 23-year-old son of New York governor (and future vice-president of the U.S.) Nelson Rockefeller, had gone to New Guinea with a Dutch anthropologist as part of an expedition, only to vanish and leave behind an enduring mystery. Heston discovered a trove of 16mm film shot during an inconclusive 1969 search for Rockefeller that was conducted by another (now-deceased) film director. Building on that footage, Heston re-enacts what might have happened to Rockefeller, adopting a layered approach that allows for a degree of speculation that sometimes borders on satire, even poking fun at some of the political elements (New Guinea was a Dutch colony in 1961) that might have played a part in Rockefeller's fate. Did Rockefeller drown during a swim to shore from a capsized boat? Was he eaten by alligators? Was he consumed by the Asmat tribe of headhunting cannibals, with whom he had developed a relationship in order to acquire some of their folk art? A definitive answer may never emerge, but this documentary often makes for a fascinating what-if. Recommended. (T. Keogh)