The Toured: The Other Side of in Barbados. 1992. Produced by Julie Pritchard Wright. 38 min. 1/2 Video, Color. Distributed by University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, 2000 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704. (510) 642-0460. $195. Rental: $60. The Toured: The Other Side of in Barbados touches on issues of stereotypes, cultural objectifications, colonialism, tradition and authenticity, but fails to be more than a tourist's view of the toured. The film, directed by graduate student Julie Pritchard Wright at USC's Center for Visual Anthropology, takes its audience literally on a sightseeing tour of the people working in the tourist industry in Barbados. The film opens echoing local public service announcements that exclaim, Tourism is our business...let's play our part. To the toured, however, playing our part means literally performing a role. You have to play a role because your voice has to change, your attitude towards [them] has to change, your way of being has to change. People in Barbados literally work within performance frames for the tourists, frames defined not only by their audience but also by the vestiges of colonialism found today in the tourist industry. In the economy of Barbados, tourism simply replaced the floundering plantation system. The wealth remained in the hands of a few. Neither the film nor the tourists, however, care to view the wealthy few. Rather, the film focuses on the toured, the descendants of former slaves. In recounting a brief history of slavery, the narrator explains that by the end of slavery, much of the African tribal cultures had already been lost. This comment reveals an emptiness felt throughout the film, a sense that the filmmakers see no culture existing in the lives of the toured. The film never shows the toured with their masks removed, stepping outside the frames of performance. Susan Stewart speaks of authenticity not in the object but in the narrative woven around it. The film fails to convey a sense of authenticity in the objectifications of the toured precisely because it fails to reveal their stories. The film does tour those who work in the tourist industry. Marvelous Marvin peddles jewelry on the beach, Eleanor sells dresses under an umbrella next to a hotel, and Monica braids hair along one of the walkways. As another vendor explains, Most of the people don't want to be back to the fields. Moreover, the interviewees stress, they want to remain their own boss. A bartender working in a posh hotel for twenty years underscores this by lamenting that only the owners do well, and revealing that he would not advise the young to work for the hotel. …