Editing Baraka (film) (section)

==Content==
''Baraka'' is a [[documentary film]] with no [[narrative]] or [[voice-over]]. It explores themes via a compilation of natural events, life, human activities and technological phenomena shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period.

The film is named after the [[Sufism|Islamic]] concept of [[Barakah|baraka]], meaning blessing, or Baruch in Hebrew, essence or breath.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hinson |first=Hal |date=27 October 1993 |title='Baraka' |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/barakanrhinson_a0a88a.htm |access-date=25 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="roger_ebert" />

The film is [[Ron Fricke]]'s follow-up to [[Godfrey Reggio]]'s similar non-verbal documentary film ''[[Koyaanisqatsi]]''. Fricke was a cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio's film, and for ''Baraka'' he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on ''Koyaanisqatsi''. Shot in [[70 mm film|70 mm]], it includes a mixture of photographic styles including [[slow motion]] and [[time-lapse]]. Two camera systems were used to achieve this. A [[Todd-AO]] system was used to shoot conventional frame rates, but to execute the film's time-lapse sequences Fricke had a special camera built that combined [[time-lapse photography]] with perfectly controlled movements.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.in70mm.com/news/2011/magidson/index.htm |title=A Conversation with Mark Magidson and Ron Fricke |website=IN70MM.com|access-date=1 September 2020}}</ref>

Locations featured include the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] in [[Jerusalem]], the [[Ryōan-ji|Ryōan]] temple in [[Kyoto]], [[Lake Natron]] in [[Tanzania]], burning oil fields in [[Kuwait]], the smouldering precipice of an [[active volcano]], a busy [[Rapid transit|subway]] terminal, the aircraft boneyard of [[Davis–Monthan Air Force Base]], tribal celebrations of the [[Maasai people|Maasai]] in [[Kenya]], and chanting monks in the [[Dip Tse Chok Ling]] monastery.

The film features a number of long [[tracking shot]]s through various settings, including [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and [[Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum|Tuol Sleng]], over photos of the people involved, past skulls stacked in a room, to a spread of bones. It suggests a universal cultural perspective: a shot of an elaborate [[tattoo]] on a bathing Japanese [[yakuza]] precedes a view of tribal paint.