Plot

An anthropologist creates a fictitious lost New Guinea tribe using his family members to cover up his misuse of grant monies.

A university professor is paid to find the last undiscovered tribe of New Guinea. When he fails to find the tribe, he comes home and, rather than admitting that he's failed, he gives a lecture about the Shelmikedmu tribe (named after his children: Shelly, Mike, and Edmund) and has his family dress like "Shelmikedmus," so that he can film them as proof of his discovery.—Daniel Aubrey White <b_white@bc.sympatico.ca>

A brief prologue shows anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss), with his wife and children, befriending native villagers in Papua New Guinea, where they ask the villagers about an undiscovered tribe, rumored to exist nearby; but learn from the villagers, there is none.

Shortly afterward, Mrs. Krippendorf dies, and her family return to the U.S.A.; where Krippendorf, rather than confess his failure to the university, invents a fictitious tribe, named the 'Shelmikedmu' after his daughter Shelly (Natasha Lyonne) and sons Mickey (Gregory Smith) and Edmund (Carl Michael Lindner). In the months that follow, he gives a series of lectures about the customs of this imaginary tribe, illustrated by video tapes of his sons and daughter in disguise, interspersed with images of the real villagers. Mickey and Edmund enjoy the joke and invent absurd customs to perform on camera: in one scene, Mickey pretends to circumcise Edmund with a mattock, and in another, offers to 'cleanse' a classmate undergoing her first menses. Shelly is reluctant to join the performance, but is ultimately persuaded to act the part of a 'native girl' herding livestock, while Krippendorf himself dresses as a chief. Over the next months, the 'Shelmikedmu' hoax becomes a national news sensation.

The trick gains a fellow-conspirator in fellow-anthropologist Veronica (Jenna Elfman), when Krippendorf tricks her into acting a part in one of his mock-documentary films, and later swears her to secrecy. She thereafter serves as Krippendorf's interpreter, when he appears in public as the Shelmikedmu chief; and in the process, they become lovers.

As the hoax reaches its highest popularity, inconsistencies in the films arouse the suspicions of senior anthropologist Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin), who goes to Papua New Guinea to investigate, and sends word to her assistant, Simon Alonso (Julio Oscar Mechoso), to expose Krippendorf in the midst of the latest lecture. Simon does so; but Krippendorf's reputation is saved when Shelly telephones the headman of the real village (Zakes Mokae), and he and his people impersonate Krippendorf's invented tribe. The film then concludes, with Veronica living with Krippendorf and the children, and discussing whether to terminate their hoax, or expand on it.