Baraka

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FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> <B>Baraka     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Wingdings 2" ><B>êêêê</B></FONT><B> Stars.   Not Rated.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Reviewed by Shelley Cameron</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="588" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> A brief history of the world</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="593" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="293"><div> Directed by Ron Fricke</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="293" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Documentary.  USA.  96 Minutes.</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="293"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="293" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> For pure visual film making, this 1992 documentary is unequaled.  Without a word of spoken language, a powerful and diverse collection of images unfolds in a symphony of sight and sound that brings together almost as many stories as there are locales and peoples on the planet.  Nearly defying categorization, it must be called a documentary although not in the conventional sense.  In fact, little about this film is conventional, except that it is the very essence of the medium: moving pictures.  The power that is inherent in film is used here to the fullest.  Filmmaker Ron Fricke spent 14 months on the shooting schedule alone and traveled to 24 countries to capture his vision.  Never before seen in Chicago in its wide screen 70mm grandeur, to view it any other way surely pales by comparison.</div> <bR> <div> The central theme is the interdependence and connection between, among animal, vegetable, and mineral.  This ambitious undertaking makes one feel rather than think, and comes together astonishingly well.  Beginning with a long take of a wise old snow monkey, whose face seems to possess the knowledge of the ages, this extraordinary collection of visual portrayals moves with purpose but without a linear narrative.  At the conclusion, the sense is of having come full circle, although not back to the beginning.  </div> <bR> <div> The unobtrusive camera unhurriedly lingers on its subjects and allows us to fill in the blanks with our unique perceptions.  In a sequence of religious rituals that range from a Tibetan monastery to a Russian orthodox Christian benediction to a group of holy men at the wall in Israel, simple activities that in another context seem so different, are here seen to be, in fact, points of connection.   </div> <bR> <div> Manipulating the images with time lapse photography, optical phase printing and double exposure, to name a few techniques, Fricke weaves a feast for the eyes that feeds the soul as well.  The terrible and awesome power of an enormous waterfall or an active volcano provides counterpoint to peoples around the globe as they perform their usual or extraordinary rites.  Hundreds of dancers on an Asian island undulate and sing as a single being in astonishing choreographed precision.  Fricke's camera captures a thousand candle flames doing the same.  To try to describe further the thousand images on breathtaking display would be to diminish them. </div> <bR> <div> To reveal that it has no conventional plot is not to say it is without point of view.  With incredible care, Fricke has made a film that could be shown accurately as history, geography, sociology, religious studies, art history, or anthropology.  Its global viewpoint is as simple and basic, as it is metaphysical.  It may be watched simply as a thoroughly absorbing visual celebration of the natural and created wonders of the world, but many will find much more.  This clearly is a passion for Fricke (<I>Chronos)</I> and his team, who dare to make films that must be costly and whose return on investment is probably not a key priority.  </div> <bR> <div> After observing dramatic visions of the natural world, attention is focused on its inhabitants and their activities.  With the jarring spectacle of a tree being felled and the dynamite explosion of a towering rock formation, the tidy chaos created by man gives way to the symmetry of the assembly line at a factory producing chickens.  The array of countless fuzzy yellow chicks as they are bred, tagged, tossed and sorted as so many inanimate objects is one of the most compelling in the film, mingled as is it with a crowded urban street teaming with traffic and people in fast motion. </div> <bR> <div> Descending deeper into the collective consciousness to a darker place, the images are of hungry gleaners at a garbage dump, consuming fires, decaying nazi camps, and the ancient stone figures of a lifeless human army.  Like Phoenix from the ashes the mood rises, the starry skies emerge.  The finish is like a single note held a very long time.  The carefully chosen soundtrack gives voice to each picture.  This unique documentary is breathtaking and refreshingly about something a little larger than ourselves.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="588"><div> Shelley Cameron <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >Ó</FONT> 2003</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:shlcameron@aol.com"><U><U>Shelley@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> 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