Baraka Discussion

Here is the beginning of my post.
1. The film begins in Nango Springs, Japan, with shots of a snow monkey sitting contemplatively in hot springs, suggesting a state of ideal harmony between conscious beings and nature. What in Fricke’s view does that state of harmony involve?

2. Early on in the film there is a series of slow motion scenes at temples and sacred sites around the world. The religious rituals and sacred art are complex and dramatic. What does this have to do with nature?

3. Fricke includes the Indonesian monkey chant, called “kecak”, in which participants sway, shake their arms and repeat the word “kecak”. The chant is not of religious origin and was actually created in 1930 in Bali to entertain tourists. It tells the Hindu story from the Ramayana of how Rama was assisted by a white monkey army to rescue his kidnapped wife. The hypnotic chant is sometimes performed in the United States, where some participants begin speaking in tongues. One college-aged participant said the following: “I loved it. I felt so close to everyone. I'm usually conservative and skeptical, but the energy was so welcoming that we weren't afraid to come together.” Fricke may have been unaware that the monkey chant was originally a creation for the tourist industry and was thus not an organic religious ritual. In hindsight, does the monkey chant belong in the film?

4. Frick includes images of an active volcano, waterfalls, churning clouds in fast motion, and time lapse movements of stars across the sky. What’s the message?

5. Frick includes images of natural wonders, such as natural bridges that have been sculpted by water. Ayer’s Rock in Australia is streaked with erosion. What’s the message?

6. The movie has recurring images of ritual body art: stretched ear lobes, tattoos, face paintings, head dresses. What’s the message?

7. The film takes on a more ominous tone showing people living in apartments that are like small boxes stacked upon one another; and even cemeteries have crypts stacked several rows high. One scene shows Japanese capsule hotels that are like stacked coffins that hold a single occupant. What’s so bad about living in a box?

8. The film juxtaposes a low-tech Cigarette Factory in Indonesia with a high-tech Electronics assembly line where workers wear face masks. What’s being compared and contrasted?

9. One scene juxtaposes the full body tattoos of a Japanese Yakuza gang with the tattoos of children from the Brazilian Yanomami Tribe. What’s being compared and contrasted?

10. Fast motion street scenes seem dehumanizing since individual people are lost within the larger patterns of car and pedestrian movement. Suppose, though, that religious rituals were filmed in fast motion; they’d appear the same way. What’s the difference?

11. The movie depicts factory farms: assembly-line Food production: eggs, chicken debeaking, and discarded chicks that slide down the big funnel. What’s the message?

12. One downside of big cities and overpopulation is rampant poverty: children living on the street begging for handouts, and foraging through garbage dumps. How would a more natural society prevent this?

13. As society moves further away from nature the end result is widespread war and genocide. How would a more natural society prevent this?

14. The film depicts modern Chinese communist soldiers guarding Tiananmen Square, and then shifts to pictures of the ancient Chinese Taracotta Army statues. What’s the point of comparison?

15. The film moves towards its redemptive theme with the depiction of the ancient city of Angkor in Cambodia, which is overgrown with enormous tree roots. What’s the message?

16. The film shows Hindu religious practices that center on the Ganges river, such as ritual bathing and funeral pyres. How is this redemptive, and what is it redeeming us from?

17. The film shows several religious rituals that involve fluid motion: the ritual hopping of Kenyan tribespeople, whirling dervishes of Islam’s Sufi sect, Orthodox Jews bobbing at the Wailing Wall, Muslim pilgrims circling the Kabah in Mecca. What’s the message?

18. The film closes with visual comparisons between the ruins of temples and natural rock formations. What’s the point of comparison?
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