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Genghis Blues
U.S.A / 1999 / English, Russian, Tuvan / Color / 35mm (1:1.85) / 88 min Director, Editing: Roko Belic Photography, Producer: Adrian Belic, Roko Belic Online editor and technical director: Ian M. Williamson Music: Paul Pena, Kongar-ol Ondar Sound: Lemon DeGeorge Production Company: Wadi Rum Source: Jane Balfour Films Ltd. Burghley House, 35 Fortess Road, London NW5 1AQ UK Phone:44-171-267-5392 / Fax:44-171-267-4241 E-mail: jbf@janebalfourfilms.co.uk		Roko Belic Took his first steps in filmmaking as a third grader. Inspired by Star Wars, he used a borrowed Super 8 camera to make his first film. Growing up, by order of his mother, the family TV could only be tuned to PBS broadcasts. Roko studied studio art and foreign languages at University of California at Santa Barbara. This film, made with the help of his brother Adrian represents his first professional effort.
This story of music and friendship follows blind blues musician Paul Pena on his trip to the Autonomous Republic of Tuva to participate in the Second International Khoomei Festival (1995). Tuva is a country located between Mongolia and Siberia and is currently part of the Russian Federation. Khoomei refers to a unique, truly extraordinary form of chanting, and is a tradition that has been passed down to present - day Tuvans, the descendants of Genghis Khan. In khoomei, a form of throatsinging, one performer sings by simultaneously producing multiple voices. Deeply impressed by khoomei when he first heard it on the radio, Pena began independent study of both throatsinging and the Tuvan language, and he incorporated the former into his own musical style. When the leading khoomei artist Kongar - ol Ondar (who appears on CDs with Frank Zappa and the Kronos Quartet) met Pena after one of Ondar's performances in the United States, the two struck up a friendship, and Ondar invited Pena to visit Tuva. Pena and Ondar have since produced a CD together, also marketed under the title Genghis Blues. [Fukushima Yukio]
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