USA,
1999, 88 min
Shown in 1999
CREDITS
- dir
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Roko Belic
- prod
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Roko Belic, Adrian Belic
- scr
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Roko Belic
- cam
-
Roko Belic, Adrian Belic, Shamiel Seden-ol
- editor
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Roko Belic, Ian M. Williamson
- source
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Roxie Releasing, 3125 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. FAX: 415-431-2822.
- gga award
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Golden Spire, Bay Area Film & Video: Documentary
-
COMMENTS
Paul Pena, Roko Belic and Adrian Belic in person.
OTHER
Powerhouse San Francisco bluesman Paul Pena, a blind Creole singer-guitarist who has performed alongside B.B. King and who wrote the hit “Jet Airliner,” becomes intrigued by some mysterious music he happens to hear via shortwave radio late one night. Pena follows a trail—blazed by only one Westerner two decades earlier, Nobel Prize–winning physicist and prankster Richard P. Feynman—that leads to a strange and hidden world, the Republic of Tuva, situated between Mongolia and Siberia (its people are direct descendants of Genghis Khan). By listening to the radio, Pena successfully teaches himself the nearly lost art of Tuvan throat singing—the mysterious ability to project more than one tone simultaneously. After meeting the throat-singing master Kongar-ol Onda (on tour in the U.S.), Pena is honored with an invitation to participate in Tuva’s annual throat-singing contest. Thus begins a fascinating musical adventure through the heart of Central Asia for Pena and a ramshackle group of explorers, including filmmaking brothers Roko and Adrian Belic. Though “bad juju” conspires to bring the group down, spiritual pilgrim Pena explains the point of this black magic best: “You know you’ve got to get to hell before you get to heaven.”
FACTOID #80
Irving ’Bud’ Levin, owner of San Francisco’s Metro Theatre, founded the SFIFF in 1957. However, Levin credited the idea for creating the Festival to the Italian consul general at the time, Pierluigi Alvera, who became one of its staunchest supporters.
