Life As We Know It

            Baraka is a film of amazing footage and worldwide wonder, and even being a non-narrative, it conveys more meaning than most movies out there. Baraka was powerful and moving, and even though it was slow moving overall, that is the only way someone can get anything out of it, and let it also be a memorable and meaningful experience. This film relates to semester 1, not through satire, but through a 'hero's journey' and definitely through uses of allegory. In general, Baraka relates to this class, because the film in itself represents world literature and the art of everything world literature and the world has to offer. Through how the film is put together in every way and what videos are caught to create this film, it all has allegorical meaning, because it literally shows what's happening and why, and it metaphorically shows us what Mary Ann Brussat was trying to explain through pure video. World literature is the art created and written to express human nature and the ills in society, and is made to try and unite the world as one mind, and allow everyone to see something another would. Basically, Baraka is trying to convey that idea through video, emotion, and allegory, and is trying to convince the world of seeing things differently, and doing things differently. All the kinds of writing we read 1st semester are a part of world literature, as are all documented arts with meaning, and all of them in the end, are trying to show an ill through the writing of life and death. The only difference is that it shows all of this, but through video footage instead of words. Baraka does relate to almost everything we learned 1st semester, and is directly related to the study of world literature.

            This film is one that creates emotion, fear, compassion, and curiosity through all of its elements. All of the footage is great, some with more meaning, and some with more emotion. There are certain scenes that express the compassion and wonderment that Brussat tries to show in perfection. The natural scenes from beginning to end, starting with a partial solar eclipse, to the summits of the Himalayan mountains, the many wild animals of different regions, the waterfalls in Argentina, and ending with the beauty of the stars in the night sky, and lastly a full solar eclipse, are amazingly shot and well put together. These scenes show the true beauty of nature, and rise compassion through its emotional beauty, and wonderment through all its possible meanings in context of how the film is put together. There are scientific and literal reasons why all nature is important and how it works, but to figure out what it can mean metaphorically to something else of us and the world, is an answer much harder to prove. There are so many categories of scenes in the film, including natural, spiritual, and technological based scenes, that have so much allegorical meaning to the world and life as we know it. The images that impacted me the most were the scenes showing the ills of society directly, and how those ills and the consequences of technology have affected nature and the world at large. For example, the egg factory was really scarring to me because it showed me how gross the process is of eating chicken product, and how it ruins the natural reproduction rate of chickens immensely in the world, all because of what we, one species, wants for what we call society. Another scarring scene to me was the burning of the oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf War. Not only is it destroying the environment by pollution, which makes me sadder than anything, but it is also wasting precious energy resource for technology of the world, all because of an ill in societies. The ills in society, whatever they may be, are impacting the natural level of the world, but also the societal level of the world. We are destroying the earth and ourselves, and it only gets worse every day of every year. These two scenes specifically impacted me as did a good few others, and all these scenes seem to be ones that Brussat viewed as impactful images as well. How the film is put together on a cinematographically based level, is very important to the meaning and emotion of this film, especially since it's a non-narrative, it's all about how it's put together. The music and video are directly connected, in the sense that whenever the footage speeds up, so does the kind of music, and whenever the footage is more intense, the music becomes more intense, and vice versa for both techniques. Without the music, the film would be uninteresting, and thus the video would be less emotional and meaningful to the viewers. Of course the great part of this film is that it is all based on the video itself, so the video is the art and the meaning. Both together, express the messages of the film, and make it much more impactful as a pair.

            I believe the main message Brussat is trying to convey in Baraka is the evolution of mankind and how we have created society, religion, and have lived along side with nature, but that with our evolution, we are slowly destroying the natural world and soon ourselves and our own existence in the vast universe that we live in and have yet to discover. Brussat and Ron Fricke, the director, showed just how beautiful life and the world we live in are. Yet because of us, there is also war, destruction, and unnatural death. They both created a display of the diversity of everything in our world, from how beautiful the world can seem, and how sickening it really is, to how beautiful the world really is, and how sickening it can be. We can make a change in the way we live for many things in nature, and we can keep doing things that benefit us, but we can't do one or the other. We have to find a way to sustain the life of everything, including us and the world. These are the messages and meanings I believe Brussat's thesis would have been trying to express, and I think she was trying to teach the world of these aspects of life as we know it.