Past Events and Activities - South Bay Camera Club

March 22, 2010

Baraka

Mark Magidson of Magidson Films, and producer of the film Baraka, has graciously allowed the SBCC to show the Ron Fricke film, Baraka, at the club meeting on March 22, 2010

The film (Blue-Ray version) will be displayed using the clubs new digital video projector in HD on the big screen along with Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound to enhance the experience.

This is truly an amazing film, shot on 6 continents in 24 countries around the world, some of which many of you have visited in your travels. The photography is spectacular, this is a must see for all club members. It will help you realize what an incredible world we live in and perhaps inspire you to go out and see some of it before it is too late!

We hope to see you all there for the viewing, this is a must see!

Normal refreshments will be provided - BYOP (Bring Your Own Popcorn)

Watching "Baraka" is an unusual experience, closer to a mystic trance than to a common film-going. In this hypnotic visual essay, the relationship between Man and the Earth is explored by photographer Ron Fricke, by means of careful editing and a haunting series of music from around the world.

There is no dialogue, no plot, no actors. Filmed in 24 countries and set to an ever-changing global soundtrack, the movie draws some surprising connections between various peoples and the spaces they inhabit, whether that space is a lonely mountain top, a crowded cigarette factory or a busy crossroad somewhere in the US.

The word Baraka means "blessing" in several languages; watching this film, the viewer is blessed with a dazzling barrage of images that transcend language.

Amazing connections are proposed to the viewer by careful editing: for instance, an early sequence segues between the daily devotions of Tibetan monks, Orthodox Jews, and whirling dervishes, finding more similarity among these rituals than one might expect.

Other amazing moments include sped-up footage of a busy Hong Kong intersection revealing a beautiful symmetry to urban life that could only be appreciated from the perspective of film.... The director also invented new photographic devices to be able to obtain the effects he wanted, playing with slow and fast motion in pictures, to bring out the regularities in them.

The sense of mesmerizing confusion and de-location is entirely wanted. Cinematographer Ron Fricke explains that the effect was intentional: "It's not where you are that's important, it's what's there." And what's here, in Baraka, is a whole anthropological essay summed up in 104 minutes... definitely, to be seen!