Genghis Blues (1999)San Francisco bluesman and composer, Paul Peña makes a musical pilgrimage to the land of Tuva. Director:Roko Belic |
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Genghis Blues (1999)San Francisco bluesman and composer, Paul Peña makes a musical pilgrimage to the land of Tuva. Director:Roko Belic |
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Richard Feynman | ... |
Himself
(archive footage)
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| B.B. King | ... |
Himself
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Kongar-ol Ondar |
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Paul Pena |
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Aislinn Scofield | ... |
Herself
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The extraordinary odyssey of a U.S. musician of Cape Verdean ancestry to Tannu Tuva, in central Asia, where nomadic people throat sing more than one note simultaneously, using vocal harmonics. A bluesman, Paul Pena, blind and recently widowed, taught himself throat singing and was by chance invited to the 1995 throat-singing symposium in Kyzyl. Helped by the "Friends of Tuva," Pena makes the arduous journey. Singing in the deep, rumbling kargyraa style, Pena gives inspired performances at the festival, composes songs in Tuvan, washes his face in sacred rivers, expresses the disorientation of blindness in foreign surroundings, and makes a human connection with everyone he meets. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
As a long-time fan of the blues and the music of Tuva, it was a real thrill to see this movie. This film is beautiful, and though provoking too. Showing, as it does, how the shallow west will throw a blind man on the trash heap when it (the west) loses interest, yet in Tuva he was instantly recognized for the talent that he is.
It was also a thrill to see that the legacy of Richard Feynmann is evidently alive and well in Tuva.