Baraka (1992)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Ron Fricke

Writers:

Constantine Nicholas (treatment)
Genevieve Nicholas (treatment)

Release Date:

November 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Tagline:

A world beyond words.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Prayer | Nature | Chant | Landscape | Destruction

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

• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Laurenfilm (Spain)
• Look Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• Mayfair (UK)
• Samuel Goldwyn Company, The (USA)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Skywalker Sound  sound transfers

Also Known As:

Baraka (Greece) [el]
Baraka (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Baraka (Spain) [es]
Világok arca (Hungary) [hu]

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:

Singapore:PG | 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 is an ancient Sufi word, which can be translated "as a blessing, or the breath, or the essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

A true GAIA experience

When I first experienced (that's the most striking word for it) this movie at the Gothenburg Film Festival 1994, I was truly amazed. Never before - or since - have I had such an over all explain-it-all feeling after a show.

Ron Fricke has made a documentary about the World today for a day: starting at dawn with monkeys in hot springs in Japan, and the morning rituals of various religions. This is followed by the awakening of the human race, both in the big cities and on the country side. Brilliantly edited together follows every aspect of human daily life combined with the general changes of the planet itself and all the ecological systems upon it.

The over all glue of the story are the various religious rituals. Maybe this is my personal interpretation, being a teacher of Religion, but the only time giver, except for the turning of the sun, are the praying times and times of worship peoples practice around the globe.

My comparison of the film to the GAIA idea (that the Earth as a whole being a unit, a living organism) is detectable both in the way every different cultures shown are found to be very similar to one another, as well as the speeded up people at side walks and zebra crossings look very much like the stream of blood in the veins of an organism.

All in all this is a marvellous movie pointing out both the uniqueness of the individual and the unity with all people. Go see it - now!