Laurel ~Environmental Issues~

Baraka is a film that enables viewers to see different cultures around the world by exploring different countries. It explored many cultures that I didn’t even know existed. It showed recent problems throughout the world, as well as events that have happened throughout history. I really enjoyed this film because it allows you to see the world. Baraka is narrated by music, and does not have words. Although words usually play an important role in films, Baraka is something you can understand by listening to the music and seeing different things that are happening around the world.

The film puts emphasis on the damage that is caused by commercial development. It takes away from native homes and ruins beautiful forests throughout the world. Tree’s are being cut down, and the people that are trying to develop these places don’t understand that not only does it takes away from nature, but the homes of many family’s that have lived their for many generations. Baraka also shows different cities and the way people live. Unfortunately, some of the cities look as though they are cardboard boxes stacked on top of one another. The beginning of the film shows the many cultures and people that live in remote areas throughout the world, and then shows mass production, culture and lifestyles within cities. From the simplicity of the lifestyle within nature to the production of technology, and what has to take place in order for people in heavily populated cities and places around the world to survive, Baraka takes you on a journey through nature that lets you embark on the beauty of the world and the realization that there are other cultures and people that suffer from industrialization and advancements in technology. Towards the end of the film viewers are able to see what happens in different cities.

Women in China work in factories that produce products that are made for other countries around the world. This part of Baraka shows routinely what people do on a daily basis. In slow motion thousands of cars and people pass through the streets, and commercial airplanes fly over cities where airports seem to advanced for the city. The film focuses in on animal cruelty to make food, and people digging through trash dumps while machines and bulldozers are processing it to try and condense it for disposal. People are actually eating this waste to survive, while we sometimes take advantage of the luxuries that we have. Homeless people are shown living on the street in boxes with their families, and babies sleeping on sidewalks with their mothers.

Although Baraka does not have words to explain the many devastating things happening around the world, just watching it allows you to draw the same conclusion that a narrator or anyone else would. I recommend this film to everyone. It shows you parts of the world that you never knew existed, and what happens within these cultures, as we carry out your everyday routines. Our choices have a drastic affect on different places and people around the world.



Below is a direct link to youtube --> watch the Baraka Trailer: