BuzzFlash Reviews
Baraka: 2-Disc Special Edition
Directed by Ron Fricke (Who Was the Cinematographer for the Legendary Koyaanisqatsi)
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS
In this world of wonders there are still places that have not been smoothed over with the shallow surfaces of Western commercialism. The amazing thing is not how widely the McCulture has spread, but how many corners it has missed. It is claimed that the great age of travel is dead - that there are no longer amazing, exotic, beautiful and fearsome places for the traveler to discover. A movie like "Baraka" gives hope.
On one level, the film is a 96-minute travelog. On another level, it is a meditation on the planet. The director, Ron Fricke, has taken his 70-mm camera all over the globe to photograph natural and human sights. Some of them are as ordinary as the traffic in Manhattan. Some are as awesome as a solar eclipse. Some are as desperate as the tribes of scavengers scuttling like crabs over the garbage dumps of Calcutta.
Frick was cinematographer and collaborator on "Koyannisquatsi," the 1983 film by Geoffrey Reggio which is a direct ancestor of "Baraka." In that film, Reggio used time-lapse photography to capture clouds racing across the desert, and crowds of people dashing madly about the caverns of big cities. Frick uses the same technique; it's like watching the weather on fast-forward.
About Baraka:
Shot in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on six continents, BARAKA is a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you ve ever seen or felt before. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature s own prisms of symmetry, savagery, harmony and chaos.
BARAKA produced by Mark Magidson and directed and photographed by Ron Fricke, award-winning cinematographer of KOYAANISQATSI and creators of the IMAX® sensation CHRONOS has now been fully restored from its original camera negative via state-of-the-art 8K UltraDigital mastering to create the most visually stunning Blu-ray ever made.
INCLUDES OVER 80 MINUTES OF ALL NEW BONUS FEATURES:
Baraka: A Closer Look
Baraka: Restoration
Eco-friendly packaging
-100% recyclability.
-20% post-consumer waste.
-Prints using soy based inks.
-Greatly reduces green house gases.
-Forest Stewardship Council (FCS) certified
-Weighs less than conventional plastic and therefore costs less to ship
From an online reviewer:
Baraka is nothing less than a stunningly beautiful film, with some of the most amazing cinematography of people, landscapes, rituals and cities that you're ever likely to see. Watching it, a viewer loses all sense of time and place and is transported to the hauntingly celebratory visions of our incredibly varied planet.
No dialogue or plot needed, just arresting imagery and ethereal music. If you're looking for something new that is an experience in itself, you will be happy to own this film.
From another online reviewer:
Baraka is powerful... no dialogue. It's a visual documentary of a poetic tour of the globe set to the rhythms of various religious and spiritual rituals, spanning diverse locales as China, Brazil, Kuwait and major US and European sites. The soundtrack will lubricate your mind. If you are an artist, you will want to own this DVD! Hint: To fully enjoy this experience, turn off the phone, sit quietly and close to the ones you love for just a few minutes before pushing the play button. It will be memorable. Baraka must be seen, felt and experienced to be understood.
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS