A paean of praise to Baraka
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
Recently I have been getting very interested in the documentary film Baraka. It is entirely without dialogue, and it is about man’s presence on planet Earth. Sections of the film feature primitive man and how he relates to nature, the systems that modern man creates to sustain himself, and the meaning of man’s life here. It’s a fascinating film, I must have watched it three or four times in the past week, it's worth coming back to a few times.
The films director and cinematographer Ron Fricke calls it a ‘meditation on man’ and although that is the broadest of broad scopes, the film does not disappoint you. For me it really does induce a trance-like state, in which its images work its magic. It was released in 1992, after sixteen months of shooting in 24 countries. I came across it after I noticed someone had uploaded it in 4K HDR.
Anyway, highly recommended. But better watch it soon before the copyright trolls catch up.
Comments
There is a follow up, Samsara.
(There is a different film called Samsara that is about a former monk trying to lead a householder life)
This is a freely available version, at least here in the US.
https://watchdocumentaries.com/samsara/
Yes I like Samsara as well and its good that its publicly available, but I think Baraka is a quieter film with a more meditative approach... Samsara is more sharpened to tell a story. I guess it depends what you feel like, which one is going to jell more with you at any given moment.
But Baraka definitely benefitted from the 4K HDR treatment, it really changed the impact of the visuals.
Apparently the word means “a tendency to the spiritual.”
Sorry... sorry. Every time I see Baraka, I feel like adding...Bama. But I'm not sure how strong his tendency to the Spirtual was. I preferred him to his successor though.
ANYway......
Yeah I must admit, anyone is better than Trump, but I would have preferred Barack Obama to Biden.
By the way, thanks for mentioning this site. It has a lot of great documentaries which have been on my list of things to see for a while, like The Game Changers and That Sugar Film.