Clockwize efforts

noeticrogue:

Just wanted to share one of my all time favorite movies: Baraka, which means “blessing” or “breath of life” in ancient Sufi. It is an amazing compilation of visually-compelling and enlightening footage taken from all over the world portraying nature, cultural/religious rites, ancient civilizations and metropolitan life…everything captured into one. There are no main characters, no storyline,  no narration or dialogue - only music - which lends it a peaceful, moving quality, however there are some parts that I find heartbreaking, too. In any case, this is the only movie of its kind that I’ve come across and that has been woven together as well as it has so I highly recommend you watch it, especially if you’re into people, traveling or anything related to the arts. (Click here on the image above to watch it)

Synopsis: Named after a Sufi word that translates roughly as “breath of life” or “blessing,” Baraka is Ron Fricke’s impressive follow-up to Godfrey Reggio’s non-verbal documentary film Koyaanisqatsi. Fricke was cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio’s film, and for Baraka he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on Koyaanisqatsi. The result is a tour-de-force in 70mm: a cinematic “guided meditation” (Fricke’s own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period that unites religious ritual, the phenomena of nature, and man’s own destructive powers into a web of moving images. Fricke’s camera ranges, in meditative slow motion or bewildering time-lapse, over the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Ryoan-Ji temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, burning oil fields in Kuwait, the smoldering precipice of an active volcano, a busy subway terminal, tribal celebrations of the Masai in Kenya, chanting monks in the Dip Tse Chok Ling monastery…and on and on, through locales across the globe. To execute the film’s time-lapse sequences, Fricke had a special camera built that combined time-lapse photography with perfectly controlled movements of the camera. In one evening sequence a desert sky turns black, and the stars roll by, as the camera moves slowly forward under the trees. The feeling is like that of viewing the universe through a powerful telescope: that we are indeed on a tiny orb hurtling through a star-filled void. The film is complemented by the hybrid world-music of Michael Stearns. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide
Running Time: 104 minutes