ELECTRO UNITED NATIONS

BIOLOGY 1040

This post is dedicated to the class of Biology 1040: Environmental Studies (30893/EE1) NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, 2008.

Professor Jose Luis Jimenez

IN THIS SITE THE CLASS WILL POST THEIR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER WITH THE GOAL TO EDUCATE ALL THE READERS THAT VISIT THIS SITE ABOUT ISSUES RELATED TO ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES.

Discussions about the movie "Baraka":

Baraka!!

Posted by Cassandra L.

This is an extrordinary visual movie that captures the life of the world. Baraka holds and important meaning of blessing in many different cultures and religions. This word is the perfect title to this movie. It is truley a blessing to be apart of this world and all it has to offer. What I interpreted the movie to be about is people and their similarities. Looking at individual people we come in all shapes, colors and sizes and speak many different languages and live very differently but at the same time we are very much alike. Reguardless of what culture your from or what god you believe in our similarites are amazing. Every individual on this earth belongs to a group that influences the way they think and act and they practice certain rituals and raise their children in certain ways and pray , eat, live and die. The circle of life is what connects the world together the same as the environment. I learned in this class that the circle of life is what helps us to survive on this planet and without every species doing their job we would not be able to survive. The same goes for human beings within their cultures. If we all didn't procriate we would no longer exist, if we didnt plant seeds, and hunt animals and build housing we would not be able to live in this world. This movie unite the world in such a vivid and beautiful way and makes the viewer appreciate themselves and others. We all have beliefs and rituals for different aspects of our life such as becoming a woman or man, having a baby, getting married and forming families, weddings, dying. We all celebrate and go throught these stages in our life and this movie without words shows us the similarities in our lives. It showed cultures, it shows the enviroment and it shows how we all are connected.Great Movie!

BARAKA A VIEW OF THE WORLD PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Written by Nadine Louis-Charles Dorcely

This remarkable video was both fascinating and moving. Filmed in 1992, the entire movie had no dialogue, but was filled with dramatic musical sounds and imagery of the most beautiful cites around the world.

Covering twenty four countries, the two hour movie opens up with magnificent views of some of the most exotic natural wonders around the globe, comparing their beauty and serenity, to the overcrowded and polluted cities worldwide.

With powerful imagery of different ethnic groups and cultures engaged in what appears to be their unique forms of prayers or worships, we traveled back and forth to a variety of places with absolutely breath taken architectural and panoramic views.

We observed the evolution of the human race and the economic and industrial development of some big countries. In some occasions, from the tribes of Africa to the monks of Asia, the producers gave us the opportunity to explore the differences and similarities of mankind. Without a doubt, We can relate to the fact that regardless of where we live on this planet, we all seem humbled by the universe and its wonders.

Throughout the history of the human race, there has always been a fascination and urge to seek for the master forces behind the creation of the universe. From the primitive tribes to the modern age pactices, men have established universal and traditional forms of religious beliefs. Every nation and culture has found its unique way of expressing their faith in recognition of the powerful forcesthat govern nature.

For the most part, around the world we all seem humbled by the grandiose beauty of nature and the entire universe. Spirituality seems to be at the foundation of any and every society. Our thirst and curiosity to seek a high power or authority to worship or idolize has always been our second nature. Watching this movie, we got to explore the most fascinating forms of cultural expressions of faith and beleifs diversity.

The most riveting and magnificent places on the planet where shown through out the entire movie and it was shocking and heart wretching to see how over the centuries, the human race managed to destroy the majority of our world's natural resources and beauty. From the wild life of Africa, to the North and South Pole we noticed a gradual decline in plants, animal species. We are now faced with enviromental issues, air, water and land pollution. Not only do we over populate the planet earth, but are destroying its natural beauty in the process. What stood out the most is the fact that we have become prisonners of our evolution. Our big cities have taken us away from the clean and open natural environment and turned us into urbanized zombies. Worldwide we have a blatent disregard of nature. Deforestation for constructions and industrialization, is destroying our ozone layers.

We are setting ourselves up to become victims of our own greed and carelessness. The result of course, is what we are now seeing: Unknown and uncurable viruses, mysterious deseases and illnesses of all kinds, and a short life spin. The world is no longer in touch with nature. These overcrowded cities filled with pollution and poverty and crimes, are affecting our lifestyle. It was interresting to see how men became as mechanical as the machine that we have invented. Just like puppetts we are caughtup in our daily routines. "We litterally do not have time to stop and smell the roses". As bad as it may sound we are slowly walking towards our doom and the destruction of the planet as we know it.

The movie clearly illustrated how we have become a fast paced world and our need for speed, our lust for power and control turn us towards warfare and crimes. The weapons and technologies that we are now using to kill and destroy each other are getting more and more sophisticated. Driving by greed, self-accomplishment and status, we random think about our fellow man. The distribution of wealth is so unfair and so poignant, that poverty and miserey is a more common way of life in many places of the world.

Our children and the generations to come are all exposed to this environmental decline. We have seen people so hungry that they were fishing for food in landfiedls full of trash. Natural disasters are so common, that it seems that nature is turning its fists against us. We mass produce and genetically engineered our food and from the baby formula to almost everything found on the shelves of a modern day grocery store, the ingredients used affect our health and growth. It is no wonder that we have illnesses for which we have no cure and suffer from stress and anxiety.

Our life expectancy is so short compared to those of our forefathers. Through out the entire movie, I got a sense that a message was being sent for all to see.that " We need to be more accountable for our lifestyles on the planet earth. It is emparative that we recognize that our so called " industrial evolution, and technological societies although we pride ourselves into thinking that we are "civilized and developed nations" In reality our great accomplishments are often the source of our destruction.

Grant it all the technological discoveries In many ways may have their advantages. I am not one to bash scientific discoveries, because science and technology have evolved over the past centuries, but this movie did not fail to show us how although we may be walking on the surface of the moon, we are still very much primitive in our reactions and actions. To me that movie can also be seen as an eye opener, an informative tool to help our society recognize that : "We can not let technology dictate our behaviors and transform us into robots. We must be more concerned for the world and the enviroment we live in. "

The photographers used this documentary video to help us realized our past, present and future. We as a race regardless of our ethnic background and origins need to take a stand and preserve our world and its contents for its present and future inhabitants. However and whatever way we choose to contribute, we have to embark in the salvation of planet earth. From Asia to Africa, from the North Pole to the South, it is "our planet Earth" each and every one of us can play a small part in keeping it green, safe and restored. It is in our best interest to establish new boundaries and learn to take better care of it. Regardless of our religious and political beleifs and differences we must all agree on this one and change our here and now mentality.

"Bakara is a word that means blessings, we are blessed with the planet Earth, it is our home we must not only love, respect, protect and preserve her now, but our duty is to install the same values into our children and all the generations to come otherwise the Apocalyptic doomsday that we all so fear will become a reality. ""Thank you teacher for this marvelous eye opener."

BARAKA

Posted by Teressa

BARAKA is a film that I must say is un-like any film I have ever seen. This film is strictly just a film with no sound, it is a matter of using your sight as well as using
your cognitive skills to piece together what exactly is going on. One might say that this film is boring, but I enjoyed it! It was an amazing experience. This film viewed the diversity from all over the world, as well as gave us some insight on different sceneries and animals.This movie visited many different countries(which I found it easy to identify them because due to the symbols and statues it became obvious to me). With these countries you were able to see their land, the way that they live, the historical sites as well as statues, symbols, prayer and ritual. Remember there is no sound, and seldomly you heard music and different rhythms, therefore through out this movie you had to pay close attention and use your knowledge to get the general concept of what is really going on.The movie began with mountains which were covered in snow...they suddenly began melting and birds started to fly back near the mountains, which gave a clue that winter was ending and they were coming back to a warmer place. It suddenly switched over to India. How do you know it was India? Well I found this obvious due to the nature of prayer and the symbols that were used. They displayed buildings and the city life, through out the city you saw people on the street carrying food and there were two men painting something symbolic on a wall. They switched over to a group that was praying with some type of painting on their foreheads.There was a beautiful scene with water flowing and suddenly crashing against rocks, there were animals on the hills and suddenly there was a female who was carrying fruits and vegetables. There was a beautiful greenery scene with old statues in the middle of a deserted forest. There appeared to be some ancient Buddhist art on the wall which gave off that this was an Asian country. Another scene focused on a group of men with no shirts which appeared to be participating in some type of ritual.. There were men of all ages using their hands and chanting something that was unknown. One group would lay down while the other group swayed their hands and moved their fingers, it appeared as they were pushing/shrubbing something away from their bodies.One of the sceneries was an empty green hillside, there was also a volcano which was ready to erupt, there was an intense use of music and you could see the redness of the lava flowing. There was smoke evolving all over the area. After this scene, komodo dragons became visible; and they were just stacked on top of each other. Followed by ancient drawings on stone, and suddenly there was a face of a dark man and there was a woman painting him. There were naked young girls who appeared to be of the Native American culture..or perhaps could have been of Central America or the Incan culture of Peru(South America). They were holding hands, and there were different colors of string that on them. There was a man chanting and doing body movement while kids sing.It switched over to a different culture, which appeared to of the African descent. There were bald women and everyone was in jewels, bouncing up and down. Suddenly someone was sawing down a huge tree which ended up falling down on the land; a large amount of ants began pouring out. It then took us back to a city, this appeared to be a run down city. There many many kids who were just sitting at their windows, while other kids were walking up and down the streets. There was a change(not sure if it was in the same city where the kids were looking out of the window) but there were several woman working in a factory. They were each doing a different task, they did appear to be Asian but not of the chinese descent; perhaps they were Indonesian or from the Phillipes.There is suddenly a city with a mall, and there are Asian men walking through the streets ringing a bell. There were several men who appeared to be in a jacuzzi in a spa and there was one man who stuck out and was very noticable. He had symbolic tattoos beginning from around his neck area down to his upper thigh. There was a new city which was flooded with people, there were cars and a lot of traffic. There were people on the subway and there were children who were in school. There was a factory which baby chickens and they were burning the tip of the beaks, the grown chickens were put into cages; which gave me the assumption that these chickens were being used for sale.A new city had a mak working while a mule pulled him and his wagon. There was a group of people which consisted of children and families picking through the trash for food. There was a lady on the street with her children, and they had food and blankets. There was a small child on the street with a blanket and he appeared to be asking for money, kids were sleeping on the streets. There appeared to be a woman on the street, it was obvious she was a prostitute. There were 8 young girls with makeup on, standing outside of a strip club; assuming that these women were prostitues. You got the assumption that this country or city had major issues with poverty and they had to turn to any means possible for food as well as money.Suddenly there was a different scene, it appeared to be of a deserted jail, there were pictures of inmates' shoes, I got the idea that maybe this was some type of camp? They all had #'s, and there were skulls of the dead as well as people's bones, all these people were asian. There were many statues of people lined up, perhaps these were all of the people who dies. Suddenly you are taken to Egypt, there is desert sand and statues. The next countries is most likely India, and the girls are bathing their hair in the water, the men are bathing in the water as wel. There are dead bodies which are being burned.Baraka was an amazing movie. It took you to many different countries, where you were able to view different cultures and ways of life. Some countries had a life which consisted of being on land and participating in several rituals..some countries had more of a city life...and there were other countries which suffered severe poverty and had to search for food. This movie viewed the diversity all over the world and the lives that many people live as well as the environment. For example in Egypt you see the scenery which is covered with sand, than there were other countries where you saw majority of the country was filled with greenery. Different cultures and environment were percieved in this movie, and it was a great experience.

BARAKA "The Silent Film"

Posted by Genevieve Chantal V. Ceant

Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson produced an outstanding movie called "BARAKA". In several languages, the word Baraka means blessing. Truly, this movie is a blessing. A blessing offered to those who cherish the environment, and a blessing chanted in the name of Nature itself. This profound hymn celebrates nature in a very powerful way given that there are no words to distract the viewer who can only allow his or her soul to be moved, accompanied by some enchanting music.
I was happy to recognize some of the places shown on the movie such as Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, the rain forests of the Amazon, Mount Everest, Auschwitz, the refuse dumps of Calcutta or the Egyptian Pyramids. At the same time, I was humbled by my lack of knowledge of all the beautiful places and amazing cultures that make up planet Earth. Seeing so many different ways in which human beings worship depending on their culture, brought to my attention that no matter how different they look, all peoples share the same basic needs whether they be Buddhist monks, Orthodox Jews or African aborigens.
Seeing images from the past such as the Egyptian Pyramids or Auschwitz, or from the present as in the war fields, reminds us that manking has always taken over his environment, but he has not always made the best of his knowledge. This film reminds us that it is the environment that sustains all life, human life as well. Destroying the environment by cutting down the forests caused the Indians of the rain forests to end up in the Brazilian slums. Man's domination over his environment has allowed him to improve his life; unfortunately, humans do not set limits to their actions. Consequently, they have moved away from a natural way of living, and their new fast-paced life in the industrial world has turned them into machines that lead an artificial life where man exists alone, cutting himself from the nurturing of community living.
Even though some viewers might miss the verbal interpretation that usually accompany documentaries, the film "Baraka" says without using words what we need to hear if only we would listen with our hearts and souls. Let's not be afraid to write the script that speaks so loudly and so clearly in the silence of "Baraka"; it will only bring more "blessings" to our planet.

Baraka Essay

Written by Laurel

Baraka is a film that enables viewers to see different cultures around the world by exploring different countries. It explored many cultures that I didn’t even know existed. It showed recent problems throughout the world, as well as events that have happened throughout history. I really enjoyed this film because it allows you to see the world. Baraka is narrated by music, and does not have words. Although words usually play an important role in films, Baraka is something you can understand by listening to the music and seeing different things that are happening around the world. The film puts emphasis on the damage that is caused by commercial development. It takes away from native homes and ruins beautiful forests throughout the world. Tree’s are being cut down, and the people that are trying to develop these places don’t understand that not only does it takes away from nature, but the homes of many family’s that have lived their for many generations. Baraka also shows different cities and the way people live. Unfortunately, some of the cities look as though they are cardboard boxes stacked on top of one another. The beginning of the film shows the many cultures and people that live in remote areas throughout the world, and then shows mass production, culture and lifestyles within cities. From the simplicity of the lifestyle within nature to the production of technology, and what has to take place in order for people in heavily populated cities and places around the world to survive, Baraka takes you on a journey through nature that lets you embark on the beauty of the world and the realization that there are other cultures and people that suffer from industrialization and advancements in technology. Towards the end of the film viewers are able to see what happens in different cities. Women in China work in factories that produce products that are made for other countries around the world. This part of Baraka shows routinely what people do on a daily basis. In slow motion thousands of cars and people pass through the streets, and commercial airplanes fly over cities where airports seem to advanced for the city. The film focuses in on animal cruelty to make food, and people digging through trash dumps while machines and bulldozers are processing it to try and condense it for disposal. People are actually eating this waste to survive, while we sometimes take advantage of the luxuries that we have. Homeless people are shown living on the street in boxes with their families, and babies sleeping on sidewalks with their mothers. Although Baraka does not have words to explain the many devastating things happening around the world, just watching it allows you to draw the same conclusion that a narrator or anyone else would. I recommend this film to everyone. It shows you parts of the world that you never knew existed, and what happens within these cultures, as we carry out your everyday routines. Our choices have a drastic affect on different places and people around the world.

Baraka Film Review

Posted by Lauren

Baraka is a very powerful film and demonstrates both human life as well as nature as a whole. This film is different because it is a non-verbal film that contains no script and no actors. This film is strictly a series of images shot from around the world that show both the beauty and obliteration in human acts and nature in our everyday lives. Baraka was filmed in 24 different countries around the world!
The film at first was difficult to really understand what the films purpose was. As the film goes on I realized there really was no plot but the film had a deeper purpose. The purpose was to really expand your mind and realize that one day in Africa was very much different from than in Israel as well as the other countries around the world. There may be many differences in the cultures around the world but we are similar in the grand scheme of things.
The photography in this film I thought was breathtaking! There were photos from all over, first you would see a scene of the mountains, and then it would go to a scene of a waterfall. The way that it was filmed definitely did a good job capturing you into the film.
The experience of watching the film I think is different for everyone because that there is no script. Each person has a different perspective of the film. The best way of really understand the film Baraka is watching it!

World’s Differences

Christina Bryant

When one stops to think about how our world differentiates from culture to culture most people don’t realize the complexity of how it truly is. To most, our world is how you see it in front of you everyday. Whether you’re wealthy, middle class or see no class, people believe that’s the way it is everywhere. It’s believed that everyone lives acts and feels the same way. That couldn’t be further from the truth, though. In reality every culture is completely different in nearly every way. >From the attire people wear, or don’t wear, and the way people cook their meals to the way they pray to their god. When people in our culture wake up in the morning they can go into the kitchen and get themselves a cold, or hot, drink depending upon preference. They can then cook themselves something to eat and sit on their sofa to watch a television program, completely oblivious to how the rest of the world acts and feels. People in our culture are spoiled. They complain about petty materialistic things they don’t have or that fact that they have to go to work everyday to make a living. While in reality they should be appreciating everything that we do have because there are people in other places that don’t have nearly as much as we do. Yet somehow they smile and accept life for how it is. They are simply happy to be alive and healthy. They don’t care if they have a Prada bag or a Lexus to drive. All they care about is their family’s health and happiness. People in other cultures don’t have the luxury of choosing what to eat each day. Most will settle for anything to eat, even if it was picked from a pile of garbage or was shot, killed and skinned earlier that same day. People will settle for the scraps that were thrown out by others, then mixed around with other garbage and dumped in a pile of dirt. They will go through all that garbage to get a piece of lettuce that will be shared among five other people. Once they finish with that food, which couldn’t even be classified as a meal, they are completely content and ready to go looking for the next small meal. Other countries eat the same thing everyday. It has never changed and probably will never will. For example they will have a bowl of rice for breakfast lunch and dinner. Food is not the only problem other countries encounter. Over population is so out of control that people have no choice but to sleep in what looks like a large box. They wake up at the crack of dawn and then walk in the clustered streets to get to the subway. Once there they squeeze into the jam-packed cars that are packed tighter than sardines in a can. Most of these people will have to stand on the subway for hours trying to get to work. Once they arrive at the factory style job they have they will sit so close to one another that they’re practically on top of each other. All of which are doing the same work, barely being noticed. They will do this every day in order to supply themselves and their families with food and a warm place to sleep. Nothing else in their lives matters or bothers them. They don’t complain about what they don’t have. They’re just happy to be able to work and supply for their family. Another big difference between us and other countries is the way we pray to our god. Only about half of our population actively goes to church or pray at all for that matter. Americans do not realize how lucky we are to be able to practice whatever religious beliefs we desire. We take for granted the fact that if you’re Christian you can go to your church, or if you’re Jewish you can go to your temple. No one is looked down upon for practicing what they believe. In others countries in this world people practice one belief and that’s it. They pray one way and would never imagine doing so differently. They wake up in the morning and pray to their god, asking that everything goes good that day and no evil approaches them. They will then pray at night before they go to bed again guarding them from evil. And in most places they will pray between those two times. Some places men dedicate themselves top praying all day while the women are preparing for or clothing for their families. The drastic differences between countries which are all in the same world is astonishing. People have become oblivious to the rest of the world. If everyone would combine, become one and work together our world would be better off. However, that is not the case. People choose to stay in their own world and live their lives the way they choose. Most could care less if people in other countries ate at all that day, or even that week. In my opinion, the way Americans act is disgusting.

BARAKA

written by Mercedes Perez

Baraka is a movie about the evolution of earth from the beginnings of our times to today. It reflects the earth as God intended to be pure and simple. This movie shows the beauty of God’s creation in its most primitive forms to the most advance ones, from the people to the land to the ocean to the sky. But at the same time it shows as how humans turned it into what we have today, a world with a lot of problems driven by our own behaviors. This movie was filmed in many different countries such as Brazil, Europe, US, Africa, illustrating the geography, cultures, religions, believes, of the people of these countries. It gives us an idea about how the earth looked at the beginnings of times to what it looks today. It shows us how the water run clear and clean, and how abundant it was, how the forest was rich and full, how the animals were free and safe, and most important how humans were worry and stress free.Today’s day it does not matter what county we come from, we are all dealing environmental issues, without knowing that the environment is our life support system, and it is compose of simple things like the air, water, metal, soil, rocks and other living creatures, that without these we could not survive. Today there are a number of problems affecting our environment such as:Global Warming that is not more than the change in climate originated by the discharge of heat trapping gases produced by vehicle, power plants, industrial process and deforestation. The dangers of global warming are many; these include for example; health problems such as Asthma, spreading diseases, etc. Also, with global warming we are experience extremes weather from hurricanes to heat waves. Is also influencing the economic, for example in area that depend on the winter as a support for their business, today with global warming these area are being affected because of the absent of snow and cold climate.The deforestation plays a considerable part on global warming, this is because when the rainforest is either cut or destroy by the men, it affect the climate in different ways. For example: Dramatic increase in temperature, entire region change to desert, aridity of previously moist forest soil, water not being recycle, etc…. Most of all with deforestation we are losing the clean air and clean water that once we were able to enjoy.Air Pollution is another problem affecting our environment; among some of the effects of air pollution we find, smog, reduction ozone layer and of course global warming.Air pollution is also responsible so a significant portion of human health condition like respiratory infections and other illnesses. In conclusion, the movie Baraka demonstrate how we went from a life of simple ness to a world full of controversies, and some how cruel. It shows how our own actions change not for good, the world God planned for us to reside in. If it is true that today we live in a more advance for lack of better words, it is also true that we live a life full of difficulties and contradictions.

BARAKA (A WORLD BEYOND WORLDS)

Written by Sean O'Malley

The film Baraka was filmed in 1992 in 24 countries around the world, including, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, and Turkey. This film has no dialogue throughout the almost 2 hour film. This really lets the viewer soak up the scenary and maybe add their own dialogue. Baraka means blessing in several lannguages around the world. This was a great title for this film, because it shows us the true blessing it is to live in this wonderful world. This film shows the beauty of the country-side and the hustle and bustle of cities. My favorite part of the film was when the muslims visited Mecca and started to pray. I remember learining that part of the Muslim religion you must visit Mecca once in your life time, if you can afford it. Film producer Mark Magidson is currently filming Baraka's sequel Samsara.

Alissa Mandich Baraka

Alissa Mandich
Biology 1040
Jose L. Jimenez
February 25, 2008
Baraka

The Baraka film is a beautiful montage of a collection of photography and background music that captures nature as well as human nature. Even though there are no actors, actresses, plot or script it captures the beautiful scenery of landscapes around the world like: churches, waterfalls, ruins. and cultureal and religious ceremonies. It explored various places in the world including the six major continents. This powerful nonverbal film shows people in their natural habitat, and how the advancements of technology have altered am extreme and primitive way of life by completely changing their life and lands.
This film explores six different continents and twenty-four countries. In these different places there were numerous religions, each one of them with a noticeably different customs. For example it showed Orthodox Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. IT was evitable how holy this land was to the Jews because they were very seriously dressed and composed there. It also showed the Muslims pilgrimage to the city of Mecca. It showed the customs of them praying with millions of other Muslims as they walked around Mecca. Catholics were another major religion that appeared in the film. It showed Catholics performing ceremonies in a very traditional fashion in a traditional church. Even other less common religious groups that are rare in the United States were touched upon. It hoed people with face paint and matching pants partaking in a ceremony that consisted of people sitting around and dancing as they listened to musical beats. There were so many religions explored in the film and it was very interesting to see the many different life styles of the different groups of people.
A major portion of this film showed destruction of nature. There were many things being blown up, trees being cut down, things being produced in factories, people digging throw trash to find food, prostitutes on the streets, and homeless people sleeping on the streets. This created a very different tone and mood to the film than the peaceful scenery of the rest of the film. This portion of the of the film was more disturbing because after the showing of the beautiful and peaceful world we live in it showed the destruction and mess which we have created. This was incredibly sad to see because even though I know things are like this are taking place in the world I seem to be very much sheltered from a lot of the major issues in the world.
Overall I really enjoyed this movie. It gave me a chance to look at the world in a different way. Baraka really captures the beauty and greatness of the world and the people living in it. It made me wonder about how much we are destorying the Earth by cutting down tress, and building factories, and blowing things up. Even though the movie was alittle long it was really able to make an impact on how I view the world.

Baraka movie

Posted by Manouch

Baraka is an incredible nonverbal film containing images of 24 countries from 6 continents, created by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, with music from Michael Stearns and others. The film has no plot, contains no actors and has no script. Instead, high quality 70mm images show some of the best, and worse, parts of nature and human life. Timelapse is used heavily to show everyday life from a different perspective. Baraka is often considered a spiritual film.Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, which can be translated as "a blessing, or as the breath, or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds." For many people Baraka is the definitive film in this style. Breathtaking shots from around the world show the beauty and destruction of nature and humans. Coupled with an incredible soundtrack including on site recordings of The Monks Of The Dip Tse Chok Ling Monastery.Baraka is evidence of a huge global project fueled by a personal passion for the world and visual art. Working on a reported US$4 million budget, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, with a three-person crew, swept through 24 countries in 14 months to make this stunning film.One of the very last films shot in the expensive TODD-AO 70mm format, Ron Fricke developed a computer-controlled camera for the incredible time-lapse shots, including New York's Park Avenue rush hour traffic and the crowded Tokyo subway platforms.

BARAKA !!!!!!

Without words this movie uses camera shots and music to show us the world, with an emphasis not on "where," but on "what's there." It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, waterfalls, forests; several hundred monks chanting. Indian peoples apply body paint; various landscapes, churches, ruins, religious ceremonies, and cities thrumming with life and whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature by showing us logging, blasting, and strip mining. Images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a river where people bathe and funeral burns take place. Prayer and nature return. A monk rings a huge bell; stars wheel across the sky The movie draws some surprising connections between various peoples and the spaces they inhabit, whether that space is a lonely mountaintop or a crowded cigarette factory. Some of these attempts at connection are more successful than others: for instance, an early sequence between the daily devotions of religion Tibetan monks, and Orthodox Jews, finding more similarity among their rituals than one might expect. And there are other amazing moments, as when sped-up footage of a busy intersection reveals a beautiful symmetry to urban life that could only be appreciated from the perspective of film. The lack of context can be frustrating, not knowing where a section was filmed, or the meaning of the ritual taking place, and some of the transitions are questioning. This fil used time-laps photography in order to capture the great pulse of humanity as it interacted in daily activity.

BARAKA

Written by Ran Stern

Barake is a special movie that tries to capture the world and its problems in a very unique way.This film which has no dialog or actors, delivers footage from around the world in a particular order. The footage includes various landscapes from different countries, as well as different religious structures and cultures rituals. The movie also brings different populations and cities thrumming with life. The order of the pictures in the movie starts in the far east, moves to Asia, then Africa, and the Americas. The film is also brought in a chronical order to show the great impact of humans on the world, with the problems assosiated with it.the beggining of the movie brings pictures of different religions and their wordship rituals, from around the world. the film moves from the primitive and pure cultures to the big cities were technology is developed, and population is exploding. The movement through time comes to show the social and economical problems assosiated with the world today. A great footage is delivered throughout the movie of the reach people from the big cities next to the poor and the misroble from different places around the world.As well as showing the social and economical problems of the world today, the movie delivers the different wars that took place, their effect on human kind and distraction they caused.In overall the movie comes to show what human beings has done to the world, and the major problems that came with the technological development.

BARAKA

written by Andre Dennis

The film Baraka showed a variety of scenery all over the world. From sacred grounds, to vast landscape, cities, old ruins, religious temples, and humanity from all angles of the globe. Baraka, also known as, blessing in numerous languages, was filmed from over 152 different locations worldwide within 24 countries, on six different continents. The film was shot using a high quality 70mm imagery to show the best quality pictures possible; and Time-lapse, to show the world and everyday life from multiple perspectives. The countries that was in producing this film was, “Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States.” (Wikipedia, Baraka, p. 1)
Baraka contained no form of human conversation or dialog, rather than tribal incantation and various sounds of nature. The movie showed some of the most beautiful locations on the globe known to man and some of its most devastating sides, due to nature and mankind repercussions.
Fricke, Ron, & Magidson, Mark. (1992). Barakahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film)

Baraka

Posted by Elyssa

Baraka is a film that gazes with such awe at the mystery of life on earth that it seems almost childlike and yet does it in a way so purely cinematic that it can only come from the hands of a wizened master. It looks at us humans as if through a telescope and yet knows us so well, it’s scary. Human beings and their complicated relationship with the planet and what might be waiting for us when we leave it. Maybe the point’s in there, our capacity as humans to wonder, to look up and imagine something greater than ourselves. It’s fitting then that Baraka begins with a solar eclipse and ends with rolling star fields, likely primitive man’s first hint of the eternal. This incredible journey, around the world only to arrive at what makes us fundamentally human is the gift of Baraka. It’s also, as this brilliant jewel of a film reminds, us, the enduring reward of the movies.

EASSAY BARBAKA

Posted by Mark Reid

As the tide of chemicals born of the industrial age has arisen to engulf our environment. Today we are concerned with a different kind of hazard that lurks in our environment. Pollution , water smog,volcano smoke, grass and vegetation all represents the native lands we all inhabit. the environment issue faced are of life and preservation to our well being. With out a clean sky birds cannot fly, without clean water animals can't swim, drink or eat; from the plant nets resources neither can we. Man destroys wood and trees for its development for other resources of survival.poverty is every where we see from the grave to the front door, do we open with respect to our nature or lose, because we fear our progress which will it be. why do we make things to kill ourselves than preserve ourselves. We make cigarettes, grow food & pollute or waters knowing it will kills us. It seems that we are trying to change the population size from growing out of control, or is it's because we are on a faster paste than we need. It may be we can't control our own in order to keep an advantage. Are we running out of room for the populations growth size.the battle of living things began so long ago that its origin is lost in time. But it must have begun in a natural environment, in which whatever life inhabited the earth was subjected, for good or ill.

Links to Students Blogs:

http://seansbio.blogspot.com/

http://laurenvashon.blogspot.com/

http://laurelhope.blogspot.com/

http://environment4us.blogspot.com/

http://environmentalstudiestm.blogspot.com/

http://lornajimenez.blogspot.com/

http://luichiteo.blogspot.com/

http://biophila.blogspot.com/

http://envirostudies.blogspot.com/

http://miniproject1.blogspot.com/

http://markofsuccess.blogspot.com/


http://manouch-environmentalstudies.blogspot.com/

http://nadinehopes.blog.com/

http://sranearth.blogspot.com/

http://enviromentalstudies.blogspot.com/

http://iamteflondon.blogspot.com

http://elyssasenvironment.blogspot.com

http://carlsynclair.blogspot.com/


http://environmental_whyshouldwecare.blogspot.com