Baraka (1992)

Director:

Ron Fricke

Writers:

Constantine Nicholas (treatment)
Genevieve Nicholas (treatment)

Release Date:

November 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A movie with no conventional plot: merely a collection of expertly photographed scenes. Subject matter has a highly environmental theme.

Plot Keywords:

Falling Tree | Fast Motion Sequence | Chicken | Native American | Chick

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Directed by
Ron Fricke

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Constantine Nicholas		treatment
Genevieve Nicholas		treatment

Produced by
Mark Magidson	....	producer
Alton Walpole	....	supervising producer

Original Music by
Michael Stearns

Cinematography by
Ron Fricke

Film Editing by
David Aubrey
Ron Fricke
Mark Magidson

Sound Department
David Brownlow	....	location sound recordist
David Brownlow	....	sound
Matthew Iadarola	....	supervising re-recording mixer
John Morris	....	sound designer
Jennifer Myers	....	foley artist
Margie O'Malley	....	foley artist
Jeffrey R. Payne	....	sound transfer
Joseph Piantadosi	....	sound transfer
Miguel Rivera	....	dialogue editor
John Rotondi	....	sound engineer: Y4
Michael Semanick	....	foley engineer
Tom Sherlock	....	sound transfer
Steve F.B. Smith	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby
Michael Stearns	....	location sound recordist
John Joseph Thomas	....	sound effects editor
Eric Thompson	....	foley engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Lee Parker	....	cinematography consultant
Richard Vetter	....	cinematography consultant

Editorial Department
David Bartholomew	....	post-production consultant: 70 mm film assembly
Gay Browning	....	first assistant editor
James Sheridan	....	negative cutter
Christopher Kulikowski	....	post-production assistant (uncredited)

Other crew
Kimber Hightower	....	production assistant
Robin Smith	....	location researcher

Production Companies

• Magidson Films

Distributors

• Laurenfilm (Spain)
• Look Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• Mayfair (UK)
• Samuel Goldwyn Company, The (USA)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Skywalker Sound  sound transfers

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Spain:T | UK:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Aerospace Maintenance & Regeneration Centre, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Company:

Magidson Films

Trivia:

Baraka was the first film in over twenty years to be photographed in the 70mm Todd-AO format, an extremely high definition wide-screen film format developed in the mid 1950s. The previous film filmed in this particular format was The Last Valley (1970).

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#18.3)" (2005)

A Sensual and Spiritual Experience

Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, translated as a blessing or as the essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds. With the theme of man's diversity and his impact upon the environment, Baraka is a documentary photographed on six continents in 24 countries including Tanzania, China, Brazil, Japan, Nepal, the U.S. and Europe. It has no story and no dialogue, yet transcends geography and language to provide a sensual and spiritual experience that enables the viewer to look at the world in a totally different way.

When the film opens, a lone snow monkey sits in the middle of a hot spring, biding its time. The expression on its face is one of deep reflection and weariness. When it looks up at the stars, then closes its eyes, shutting itself off from its surroundings, I sensed my own inner longing for the infinite.

As the film progresses, we see the edge of a volcano in Hawaii, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Ryoan-Ji temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, and the fire plains of Kuwait, their oil fires burning after the 1991 Gulf War. Through Fricke's camera, we glimpse various forms of religious expression from the chanting of monks to tribal celebrations in Africa and Brazil.

Baraka is almost like an updated version of Godfrey Reggio's 1983 film, Koyaanisqatsi. Using speeded-up images of hectic big city life with its homelessness and deprivation, interspersed with mountain vistas and forests, it depicts the mechanical nature of modern life as contrasted with the beauty of the natural world.

This film allowed me to see things I never knew existed, and to glimpse patterns of interconnectedness and a sense of balance and proportion in the world I was barely aware of. I was moved to simply look into people's faces and have them look back at me, allowing me to connect with the universality of the human spirit.

Fricke has said that Baraka was intended to be "a journey of rediscovery that plunges into nature, into history, into the human spirit and finally into the realm of the infinite." Unique in its beauty, sensitivity, and perception, Baraka succeeded, in the course of 90 minutes, in moving me from the humdrum of everyday reality to a calmer and more spiritual space