BARAKA a Visual Journal | This article first appeared in |
| Written by: Thomas Hauerslev | Issue 60 - March 2000 |
 BARAKA a visual Journal, is a new splendid coffee-table sized book published by St. Ann's Press, Los Angeles, CA, USA.It is not the book about the film, or The Making of Baraka. It is, however, a wonderful book containing stunning images photographed by "Baraka" producer Mark Magidson during the shooting of the film. Like the film "Baraka" (very often mistaken for a documentary - it isn't - it's a non-narrative film!) the book BARAKA a visual Journal, demands the readers full concentration. It is a book for thoughts. It's a book for the dedicated fans of the film "Baraka". Only two 65mm cameras were used to film "Baraka" one of which was equipped with a lens built originally for a 6x6 Hasselblad still camera. Mark Magidson used that lens on his own Hasselblad camera body and photographed the pictures, of which several have now been published nearly 10 years after the film opened in cinemas. "BARAKA a visual Journal" is 58 pages with one picture printed on each page. Pictures vary in size and some are in black and white and some in full color. There is no text to the pictures. All pictures have their own story and it is up to the viewer to translate. It is the universal book and, like the word baraka itself (which is an ancient Sufi word) the book encompasses the essence of life for good and for bad. All photographic locations of the plates are explained to the reader at the end of the book. Which is very nice to know, as you find yourself cascaded around the world while reading, or actually experiencing the book. Distribution The book is distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers 155 Sixth Avenue, Second Floor New York NY 10013 USA Phone +1 212 627 1999 and fax +1 212 627 9484 Book ISBN: 0-9671744-0-6 For name(s) of sales outlets in Europe, call Idea Books: +31 20 622 6154. | More in 70mm reading: |
About Baraka | |
 Baraka is also the title of a film I made with director Ron Fricke. During its production I took these photographs, and the opportunity to publish them fulfills a need that continued long after the film was released.Utilizing only image and music, Baraka explores many themes, including man's interconnectedness, spirituality, his capacity for destruction, and mortality. It took 2 1/2 years to finish, 14 months of which was spent on location. During that time we visited 24 countries, taking over a hundred flights, and numerous train and car trips. Since image was our main character, we chose to work in the rarely used 70-millimeter format. Its larger negative size yields a higher quality than the standard 35-millimeter size used on most films. (The very few motion pictures shot in 70mm include "Lawrence of Arabia" and "2001: A Space Odyssey".) The production of "Baraka" was very demanding. Our goal was to take a minimal crew (five) to as many diverse locations as possible within the limited budget of an independent film. With few exceptions, we worked or traveled seven days a week, usually rising at 4 or 5 am, working past sunset, then planning the details for the following day. Careful planning was partly a financial necessity, stock and processing costs for 70mm are more than double those of 35mm. During those 14 months on location, we shot only 17 1/2 hours of film. Our trips were planned well in advance of our arrivals with local coordinators in each country. We also allowed for last-minute changes depending on factors like weather or the opportunity to access some particularly unusual subject matter -- such as the oil fires in Kuwait -- on short notice. There were a number of near disasters, including engine failure in a small plane over the Amazon rainforest, the discovery of land mines during one of our shoots in Cambodia, and sharing one-lane mountain roads with animal-drawn carts and large trucks on a long road trip across the island of Java. We were fortunate that there were no serious illnesses or accidents during this very intense period. As time went on I became more and more immersed in this exhilarating but often grueling experience. Traveling with 65 cases of equipment plus personal luggage, incredibly we never lost a single case or bag on any flight. Among this equipment were two 70mm cameras, one of which was a special motion-control time lapse camera that we had built especially for the film. That camera utilized a set of Hasselblad medium format lenses which were available to me for still photography, and I used them, time permitting, with two Hasselblad camera bodies that I carried. As the schedule progressed and the experience deepened for me, the still photography increased in priority. Despite the pressing demands of completing the film and the exhaustion from the constant jet lag and daily pre-dawn wake up calls, I was aware of a need to express something through these photographs that I knew I would not experience again. Seeing the constants of life and death through the forms of different cultures connected me in a very primal way with the people we came into contact with. These seemingly endless individual encounters renewed my own life's exploration | |
Mark Magidson | |
 An inventor and industrial designer with numerous patents and a diverse technical background, Mark developed a successful company in the mid-1980s. He then sought to broaden his interest into the arts. He began in film production as a co-Producer of the acclaimed IMAX film "Chronos" with director/cinematographer Ron Fricke. "Chronos" (1985) was awarded the Grand prix du Jury Award at the first festival International du Film Omnimax de Paris (1987).Frustrated by the lack of venues in the IMAX format, he subsequently pioneered a first-of-its-kind conversion system for the film in the new 870 film format [70mm film with 8 Perf. per frame, editor], expanding its availability beyond the limited confines of the IMAX theatre group. That system has since been widely emulated. Viewing "Chronos" as a stepping stone to a broader and more complex film in the same genre, he and Fricke began to develop the 70mm feature project that was to become "Baraka". He produced, co-wrote and co-edited "Baraka" (1993). In 1995 he produced and directed "Toward the Within", a feature length documentary about the cutting-edge world music group Dead Can Dance. It was released theatrically and was one of the best selling videos of its kind that year. | |
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