Michael Becker

Nens Editor mbecker@usnews.com

ONE of the dark horses of last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival is reprised for a run at the Ridge beginning Feb. 25. -

Genghis Bines, a first-etiort documentary by Chicage brothers Roko and Adrian Belic, was shot on a shoe string budget and took four vears to bring together. .

Since its release in 1998, the film has taken on a life of its own, earning best-of festi- val and audience awards at international film festivals including Sundance, San Francisco, Rotterdam, Galway,

Edinburgh, Sydney and Taipei.

Last year in Vancouver, the film won audience and humanitarian awards.

What is all the fuss about?

It's the magic set in motion when a blind blues player listening to his shortwave radio ac home in San Francisco hears a Tuvan throat- -singer on Radio Moscow for the first time,

The rich moment is the starting, point for an incredible jour- ney and an emotionally supercharged documentary.

Blues player and songwriter Paul Pena has worked with the likes of T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt. He’s also the guy who wrote “Jet Airliner”, a song the Steve Miller Band had a hit with trom the 1977 album, Book of Dreams.

Chronically depressed since his wife died and mostly margin- alized in his home country, Pena was fascinated with what he heard.

He painstaking!y taught himself a rudimentary facility with the Tuvan language via Russian documents. He collected Tuvan recordings and learned to sing the ancient songs. Pena added multi-harmonic Tuvan vocal techniques to his blues bag of musical tricks.

The film chronicles that journey of discovery. Destiny had Pena cross paths with Tuvan throat-singing legend Kongar-ol Ondar, who was brought to San Francisco by Friends of Tuva.

Ondar appeared in the Pasedera Tournament of Roses Parade in 1993 and recorded with Frank Zappa, the Kronos Quartet and Mickey Hart. Pena sang for Ondar, and the Tuvan invited him on the spot to travel to compete in his country’s annual throat-singing contest.

’ The trip to the Russian province (located in the Mongolian . region) was sponsored by Friends of Tuva, a group co-founded by Ralph Leighton and Nobel iaureate Richard Feynman. Chicago filmmakers, brothers Roko and Adrian Belic, joined beatnik DJ Mario Cassetta, Pena and others on the wip to Tuva

~> for the big 1995 competition.

. The resulting film has a huge heart. At the core is the bur- geoning friendship between Pena and Ondar. Pena, dubbed Earthquake tor his remarkable throat-singing mastery, walks away with the big prize and the love of Tuvan fans astounded by the spectacle of a blind black man singing with the best of the country.

The film works on multiple levels. The Belics celebrate an ancient culture chat has survived the revisionist ravages of Russia and China. More importantly the story confirms the redemp-

tive, healing and bonding power of music.

While the film is a triumph, Pena’s life since the making of this documentary has become more complicated. Pena now finds himself struggling with pancreatic cancer.

The i irony i is not lost on Adrian Belic, the film’s producer and

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PAUL Pena and Kongarol Ondar relax and jam together in the desert of southern Tuva. Genghis Blues, in the running for best decumentary at this year’s Oscars, opens next Friday Feb. 25 at the Ridge Theatre.

cinematographer.

“It's probably one of the most bittersweet stories I've ever been around. In one respect Paul is flying high and then there is this horrible illness, but on the other hand his life really hasn't been so good in a long, long time. He has many besutiful women taking care of him. We've been able to raise money to pay for care for him. He has inspirational, engaging people around him,” said Belic.

The Belic brothers have established a fund in parinership with FAF (Film Arts Foundation) to support Pena. So far they’ve collected ebout $20,600.

Said Belic, “It’s such an organic thing. It’s this collaboration of people who have a passion for Tuva and singing and travel and stuff and so it’s been a great upswelling of support.”

Adrian and Roko travelled to Ulan-Bator (the capital of

Mongolia) on Feb. 12. They showed Genghis Blues and present- ed some seminars on independent filmmaking. Of course they took a camera along, but the subject matter for the new project is back home in the U.S.A.

The working tide of the next film is The Freedom Writers.

Explains Adrian Belic, “It’s about this extraordinary group of kids in East Long, Beach, just south of L.A. They're every shape,

size, colour, ethnicity, linguistical background. The only thing they have in common is that they all come from very harsh envi- ronments — guns, drugs, no parents — just horrible stuff.

“As freshmen in high school they were all ghettoized in this one English class with this teacher Erin Gruwell. Through books like The Diary of Ann Frank and other books tailored to these kids, they began to change their lives and they began writing.”

Upon graduation from high school, when most people liter- ally didn’t think they'd be alive let alone succeed, they found themselves with a book, the Freedom Writers Diary, published by Doubleday. The book contains excerpts of diary entries that share the four-year journcy of transformation.

The Beiies are looking for a release of their next film in 2001.

“Like with Geaghis Bluvs, we don’t want there to be a narra- tor. We really want the voice to be these students and the ceacher.

“This teacher actually is now running for Congress this year and guess who her, staff are — these students. It’s like Genghis Blues — it just keeps getting better,” said Belic.

Sce Tuvans Page 24

And the next Premier is...

On Sunday, February 20, the NDP will elect a new leader who automaticaily becomes Premier. CBC Radio News will be on the convention floor bringing you live coverage. Tune in to Rick Cluff and guests from

8 to 9 am and again mid morning, before the first ballot results are announced.

LIVE COVERAGE NDP Leadershin Convention Sunday February 20 starting at 8 am

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