Reel Paradise director Steve James, introducing his film at Monday's premiere (Photos: STV)

You have to know that every documentarian has at least one reality TV show in him or her, and you can probably even assume that they have all at least considered shooting them since the genre surged to popularity in the late '90s. And while I would sooner swim with piranhas than watch 99 percent of reality shows, I have to say that the premise of Steve James's Reel Paradise was intriguing enough for me to drop by its premiere last night for an early look.

I know, I know--"But Reel Paradise is not a reality show," you say. Well, not by definition. But James--whose epochal Hoop Dreams is to the modern documentary what The Real World is to the reality genre--borrows liberally from both conventions to tell the tale of the Piersons, a New York family that relocated to Taveuni, Fiji, for a year to screen free movies in a village cinema. That James had the good fortune to witness a potent pop culture clash is not really in question; that the tempestuous family at the center of the clash (and thus in front of camera) is ultimately any more intriguing as the clans hamming it up on Trading Spouses is a little more debatable.

Not that any of this is James's fault. "At one point in the filming, I said to my crew at dinner, 'I feel like were making a reality documentary,'" he told The Reeler. "Which wasn't a criticism. It's just an observation. The difference between this and reality television is that this is something (the Piersons) chose to do for very personal family reasons. They weren't recruited to do this. When we got there, I tried to make as honest a documentary as I could."

What makes this difficult is that James acknowledges barely knowing the Pierson family before going to Fiji, having only some professional acquaintance with the acclaimed author and indie-film guru John Pierson prior to the shoot. John's wife Janet and their teenaged children Georgia and Wyatt were perfect strangers to James and his crew, and their strained interactions play inconsistently against their wise-ass cineaste repartee and individual vulnerabilities. Moreover, James' accomplished style?which has always relied so heavily on years of observation (if not decades, as in the case of Stevie)?seems hamstrung against the one-month shooting schedule provided him here.

As such, his attempt to make an "honest documentary" defers to an unprecedented measure of practical constraints. And though James said that Reel Paradise does not perpetuate the fabricated conceits of reality TV, his portrayal of the Piersons' South Pacific adventure is not any less melodramatic or turbulent than it probably would have been had the Osbournes made the trip instead. Janet tells John to stop acting like a "drama queen" in the aftermath of a break-in at their rented home, and 16-year-old Georgia saunters around town with a wince-worthy impunity that her parents both indulge and worry is corrupting the Fijian girls around her.

In probably the most compelling application of his reality-doc hybrid, James uses the aftermath of the robbery as a primary narrative thread. It represents a mystery as much as a social commentary on the rift between the Americans and the Fijians, and works in keeping with James's pure documentary mode; after all, he obviously did not go staging a robbery for the sake of upsetting his subjects' lives. And he did not have to, because the Piersons are such an irascible bunch to begin with. Their suspicions of the locals around Taveuni offer exactly the kind of personal ambiguity that anchors the best documentaries, provoking their viewers to suspend judgment of its subjects on both sides as the filmmaker unfolds the larger issue at hand.

But the Piersons override that ambiguity in Reel Paradise's weakest moments, from the defensive one-upsmanship of John and Georgia's screaming matches to John's own compulsion to micromanage the Fijians' reactions to the privilege he literally showed up out of nowhere one day to bestow. I admit it is probably not fair to judge James's film based on its subjects' behavior, nor is it appropriate to judge the Piersons based on how James's represents them. But I think it is fair to attribute a sort of squirming discomfort to their behavior's documented influence on the people in Taveuni, who--on more than one occasion--seem forced to choose sides between an established way of life and a more fast-and-loose American analogue.

It feels even fairer when the behavior often appears hyperbolized for the camera. The topic came up several times in a post-screening discussion, and Georgia Pierson admitted a degree of culpability in succumbing to the dramatic urge. "I don't think anything in front of the camera is authentic," she said. "When the camera is there, it changes the entire atmosphere. Even if people know they're being watched they act differently. But I have to say, if you are in front of a camera, it's better to act like you are in front of camera and not just blow it off."

(L-R) Steve James and the Pierson family--John, Janet, Georgia and Wyatt--in a peaceful moment

"I have to agree," added Janet Pierson. "I think Steve did as good a job as you could do working with us, and I do think we are authentic, open people. I think we're very honest. But being watched changes things."

For his part, James plays down the film's recurring hamminess. In particular, he cites a scene in which Georgia resists her mother's 10 p.m. entreaties to return home for the night. Janet tells her to stop acting for the camera, but by then it is too late--Georgia has already broken free, further empowering both her friends' and her own momentum away from discipline and control. "That moment for me proves that Janet was using that to gain some leverage to get Georgia into the truck," James told me. "Just like any parent would. The reason I left that moment in the film--more than any other--is that it proves that this is who they are. This is the way they interact. It doesn't mean they don't love each other. It's just that they're one of those kinds of families. I worried about hamming it up before getting there, but I really felt like what we captured was really who they are."

If Reel Paradise is indeed an accurate depiction of the Pierson family, it will be interesting to see how much faith audiences are willing to place in a set of relationships that discourage and even repel the viewer's sympathy. Judging by the popularity of reality TV, maybe I will not have to wait too long for an answer. But until then, at least I will know I have not missed anything staying away all this time.