I recommend watching the DVD extras

I feel that the movie holds up well on its own but the DVD extras contain a lot of helpful background information on both the indigent culture and the technical collaboration and difficulties involved in making the movie. The first extra track is called "The Balanda and the Bark Canoes" is nearly an hour long documentary on the making of the movie which ends up delving deeply into the fascinating laws of this culture. The movie and this documentary compliment each other perfectly and can probably be watched in either order, giving either a fictional movie with a "making of", or a documentary with a legend.