Baraka

The video Baraka was created in 1993. There is no speaking within the movie at all. It is comprised entirely of expertly photographed and videoed scenes with background music added in to fit with each culture that it explores. It attempts to compare different cultures with one another and display some of the worlds cruelty and its beauty in a rather morose manner. It shows that through modern technology we lose sight of the simple beauty of nature.
It juxtaposes different cultures with one another to compare and contrast. Some cultures were cleaner than others but some of the dirtiest also seemed to be some of the ones that enjoyed and revelled in life the most. Baraka had different video clips within it of the religious practices of several cultures. It seemed to show that the United States was lacking the most in proper religious culture while many of these other places around the world gather together in big groups for their rituals.
It juxtaposed cultures and different aspects within cultures from scene to scene. For example in one scene it would show a chicken factory and the chickens being cruelly vaccinated and their little beaks burned and then they were shoved in to cages in close quarters to be raised. The next scene it would show would be of Americans all confined together in a subway or going up and down escalators while in very close quarters. The video used such simple things in nature as being at the top of a mountain and viewing the clouds around you to awe the viewer. Perhaps the saddest part of the entire movie was written all over the face of a monkey in the very beginning just soaking and reflecting in the water. So many messages were conveyed without so much as a single word being spoken.
The movie was filmed in 152 locations throughout 24 countries. It uses purely truth and fact to evoke emotion from its viewers. For example just viewing the cruelty that takes place in a chicken factory is enough to make ones stomach twist into knots. In many ways this simple footage is much more effective by just presenting the facts, than 100 people standing outside of a chicken factory with signs protesting cruelty to chickens could ever be.
The movie Baraka is an incredible piece of cinema. It shows just how lovely and beautiful nature truly is and how very little people in general stop to view it. The poor chickens raised in a factory, the young children sent into prostitution to help their families get the money needed to survive, the lonely monkey reflecting in his own little pond, the clouds below the top of a huge and beautiful mountain, and and the human beings amazingly oblivious to it all. Baraka is truly a wonderful work of art that leaves a huge impression with images that will forever be imprinted in its viewers brain.