{"id":18747,"date":"2017-11-24T17:51:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T00:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/?p=18747"},"modified":"2017-12-08T17:23:10","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T00:23:10","slug":"baraka-25th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/baraka-25th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Baraka 25th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article by\u00a0Anne Maclachlan<\/h3>\n

BARAKA<\/i>: Behind the Blessings<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>With 1992\u2019s Baraka<\/i>, director Ron Fricke, composer Michael Stearns, and producers Mark Magid<\/span>son and Alton Walpole have created a wordless cultural\u2014and internal\u2014journey unlike any other. Enhanced by award-winning composer Stearns\u2019s score, Baraka<\/i>\u2019s visual masterpiece opens avenues of philosophy seen through the everyday lives of people and cultures spanning 24 countries. The project was three years in the making.<\/span><\/p>\n

A crisp, starry sky; sharp-edged, snowy mountains; and Japan\u2019s famously adorable winter hot-springs monkeys open the sequence, which moves softly to a misty Southeast Asian morning as people begin their days. Gently crossing into Jerusalem, we pause at the Wailing Wall and then transition to Turkey, where Dervishes twirl through the frame. A Catholic priest quietly prays, and Buddhist monks appear before we float to South America, Australia, Kuwait, and the island countries of the South Pacific. These geographical places are not sequenced in any political lines or with any starring roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a film in which the viewer is the main character,\u201d Walpole notes. \u201cWe discussed subtitles, but that\u2019s not what the film is about. It\u2019s not a travelogue; it\u2019s more about what\u2019s inside<\/i> the image.\u201d With a nonlinear approach such as this, says Walpole, \u201cthe film has to be put together like a picture book.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Magidson explains that the nonverbal presentation, with the omission of geopolitical identification, \u201cgets to the core of what this film is all about. It\u2019s an emotional experience,\u201d rather than one in which the viewer is being guided by inform<\/span>ation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, the only clue as to where we might be lies in any familiarity the viewer might have with the cultures onscreen; but of course, the where<\/i> is not important. A universal human connection is established under the recurring theme of stars and an eclipsing sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe starfield was conceived as a metaphor for humanity\u2019s relationship with the eternal,\u201d Magidson explains. Another pan-global celestial link, the full moon, was filmed for three days per month as it shone over manmade and natural monuments around the world. The result was 12-15 seconds of footage per night, all interspersed throughout the film. Magidson adds that the fates were in the team\u2019s favor during the Hawaiian solar eclipse, which they were able to capture the event from their hotel\u2019s rooftop as the mists lifted. They had taken a chance by staying put, while others trying for a better shot from higher ground were disappointed by the cloudy morning.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWe were able to take amazing imagery and create an arc to repeat the visual themes in nonverbal storytelling,\u201d says Magidson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the sequences are difficult to watch and challenge the soul, from the halls of Auschwitz through the torture chambers of Cambodia\u2019s camps. While the scenes are still, they are not photographs, and it is impossible to close the eyes and turn away. There\u2019s a redemption in the waters of the Ganges next to the fires of funeral pyres, where life and death meet. This was Walpole\u2019s third trip to the holy river, and he remarks that \u201cit takes a certain sensibility to really like it. It\u2019s a very sad place, and you have to be very strong.\u201d But underscoring the universal human connections of the film, life put Walpole in the presence of a boatman he\u2019d met several years before, for a happy reunion. \u201cMuch of what is behind the scenes was as powerful as what\u2019s onscreen,\u201d he observes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Stearns\u2019s intercultural score also works with the transglobal themes, with a fascinating story behind the bagpipes and drummers heard during the burning Kuwaiti oil fields sequence. \u201c<\/span>The section called \u2018Broken Vows\u2019 was particularly engaging to work on,\u201d he says. \u201cI had traveled to Japan to record Kodo drummers for an IMAX film that I was scoring, several years before starting Baraka<\/i>.\u00a0 Somewhere in the, I created a sample library out of those recordings, so that I could play the individual drums spread across a keyboard.\u00a0As I watched the footage for that section, I pulled up the Kodo drums and began playing them to the picture.\u00a0The fit was amazing.\u00a0I had wanted to do a Global Orchestral piece for the film, a piece weaving instruments from different world cultures into its fabric.\u00a0 So, I started to work with instruments from other cultures that fit the scope of this section of the film.\u00a0 The next instrument I added was the long Tibetan horns, traditionally used ceremonially.\u00a0I couldn\u2019t find anyone who could play them, so we licensed a recording of them and I massaged it to fit the rhythmic structure of the drumming.\u00a0 With those in place I knew that bagpipes were needed.\u00a0 At that time, I was living in a loft above my studio in Marina del Rey, and I would often ride my bike up the boardwalk to Venice on weekends.\u00a0 One Sunday, as I came around a corner, I heard the sound of bagpipes. There were three pipers standing on the boardwalk playing, busking.\u00a0 Perfect!\u00a0Three brothers from Australia.\u00a0 The next week they came into the studio and played with the build of Kodo drums and Tibetan horns and piece took its final form.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Walpole and Magidson speak highly of director Ron Fricke, Madgison calling him a visionary. It was Fricke who spotted what became one of the highlights for both Walpole and Magidson: a solitary meditating monk gracefully stepping along a street in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza district, seemingly oblivious to the throngs rushing past him. \u201cWe began scrambling to film,\u201d says Magidson. \u201cOur presence was a challenge to his being in a meditative space\u2014and he never broke it.\u201d Walpole\u2019s impressions were similar. \u201cIt was meditation versus the madness of downtown Tokyo. It made me feel a little mundane,\u201d he says. \u201cThe quietness of the spiritual person; I liked the purity of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, the journey through Baraka<\/i> (a Sufi word meaning \u201cblessing\u201d) will be different for each viewer. The borders imposed across the world are revealed in this film to be artificial, created only by what the viewer knows and recognizes. Baraka<\/i> removes each of these barriers, and replaces them with the certainty that we are all one on this earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Anne Maclachlan<\/i><\/span><\/h4>\n

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Article by\u00a0Anne Maclachlan BARAKA: Behind the Blessings With 1992\u2019s Baraka, director Ron Fricke, composer Michael Stearns, and producers Mark Magidson and Alton Walpole have created a wordless cultural\u2014and internal\u2014journey unlike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":18748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"festival_year":[],"class_list":["post-18747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Baraka_Poster.jpg?fit=1344%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18747"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18841,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18747\/revisions\/18841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18747"},{"taxonomy":"festival_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santafefilmfestival.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/festival_year?post=18747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}