Sunday, February 18. 2007
Genghis Blues
Ecce Mulier (behold, a woman’s pen name) tagged me with a meme involving listing one’s top ten favorite films. Ecce is one of my favorite pseudointellectual bullshitivists (Sid Uberoi, of course, being another) and so I would really like to oblige her. Unfortunately, all I can think about at the moment is the top one film I saw in the past four days. Hopefully that will do.
The late Paul Pena, an accomplished blues guitarist—blind from birth—tuned in to a short-wave broadcast of Tuvan throat-singing sometime in the 80s and was mesmerized. He spent the next twelve years learning the nuances of this unique and difficult form of harmonic singing, and also translated texts, one word at a time, from Tuvan to Russian to English via braille to become more familiar with Tuva. Genghis Blues is the unlikely story of his journey from San Francisco to Tuva to honor and be honored by these remarkable people in their national throat-singing competition.
The documentary is a flawed masterpiece—and one of the directors’ first attempts at filmmaking—that brings to bear such disparate and compelling topics as the struggles of the Tuvan people to reclaim their identity after being annexed and red-washed by the USSR, the challenges of living blind in a sighted world, and the remarkable kind of homecoming Pena experiences setting foot for the first time in a country many people don’t even know exists. We picked this one up from GreenCine—a Netflix spinoff with a more foreign/indie bent—and were captivated start to finish.
The late Paul Pena, an accomplished blues guitarist—blind from birth—tuned in to a short-wave broadcast of Tuvan throat-singing sometime in the 80s and was mesmerized. He spent the next twelve years learning the nuances of this unique and difficult form of harmonic singing, and also translated texts, one word at a time, from Tuvan to Russian to English via braille to become more familiar with Tuva. Genghis Blues is the unlikely story of his journey from San Francisco to Tuva to honor and be honored by these remarkable people in their national throat-singing competition.The documentary is a flawed masterpiece—and one of the directors’ first attempts at filmmaking—that brings to bear such disparate and compelling topics as the struggles of the Tuvan people to reclaim their identity after being annexed and red-washed by the USSR, the challenges of living blind in a sighted world, and the remarkable kind of homecoming Pena experiences setting foot for the first time in a country many people don’t even know exists. We picked this one up from GreenCine—a Netflix spinoff with a more foreign/indie bent—and were captivated start to finish.
< Previous Entry | Next Entry >
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
That’s been on my to-see list for a while. I think because of Richard Feynman’s interest in Tuva.
There’s some great stuff about Feynman & Tuva in the film, Pearl. His absent influence pervades the film. What a guy!
Look for my new book this spring entitled Poseurs & Psudointellectualism: Why Think When You Can Pose?.
I anticipate its publication with baited breath. Specifically, minnows.
lol. I think it’s a good thing it can’t be smelt from this distance at least.
Customs stops it at the 49th parallel.
It works even better this way. I should have done it in a similar fashion. Anyway, thanks for playing along! : D
By strange coincidence, Ron Silliman is reviewing Mongolian-themed films today on his website:
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2007/02/im-obviously-sucker-for-mongolian.html
I guess if there’s one thing poets love, it’s Mongolia.
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2007/02/im-obviously-sucker-for-mongolian.html
I guess if there’s one thing poets love, it’s Mongolia.
