Baraka

Producer Mark Magidson took these photographs during the filming of the acclaimed 1993 cult movie, BARAKA: A World Beyond Words. Shot in over 24 countries, the film is a visualization of the global rhythms of life. Images of rituals, landscape, and urban spaces from Brazil to Bali, New York to Calcutta, and the Himalayas to Reims Cathedral capture the interconnectedness of humanity and, define in pictures, the meaning of "Baraka," the Sufi word for "the essence of life." The film was awarded Best Picture at the Montreal World Film Festival and the Award of Excellence from the United Nations Society of Writers. The book itself is a deluxe presentation of 60 still photographs, clothbound with a tipped in plate on the cover, and printed at Stinehour Press. "Drawing on the work and vision that led to his 1993 film of the same name, Magidson surveys the forces at play in a world inexorably shaped by both destructive fury and sublime grace." Utne Reader