Genghis Blues

This documentary is so unbelievable and so entertaining, it should be best doc feature at next year's academy awards. The stranger in a strange land tale goes in so many heartwarming directions. And you have never, ever heard music like this. Go!

I really like this movie. It's a window into another world that I knew nothing about previously: Mongolia. It's amazing hat the filmmakers actually journeyed there with Pena. That's the part I enjoyed the most. And the music is great, too. I've been looking for the soundtrack CD to this movie, but no luck yet. I think this documentary should have gotten the Academy Award - but I guess that's politics. I also enjoyed the character of the Mongolian throat singer. He seems like such a nice guy, and on top of that he is a politician in Mongolia. I highly recommend this documentary for anyone who wishes to be entertained and watch something of substance.

Incredible journey, told in this documentary. It was well paced, never boring, humorous and inspiring. An amazing accomplishment from such a fascinating person.

Rating 8 out of 10

In 1995, an eclectic group of San Francisco musicians and their friends took a trip to the remote Russian-Mongolian region of Tuva, where one of them entered a throat-singing contest. The whole thing was filmed and this is the result.

Paul "Earthquake" Pena is a blind San Francisco blues singer-guitarist-harmonica player who has worked with the likes of B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, and T-bone Walker. In the early '70's, he made a rock album that included the song "Jet Airliner", later covered and made into a hit by the Steve Miller Band. The important thing about Pena, as far as this film is concerned, however, is that he is a self-taught master of Tuvan-style throat-singing.

Throat-singing is a style of singing where one sings two or three notes at once, with some very interesting harmonic effects. As pointed out in examples in the film, the sounds are similar to nose-flutes, Jews-harps, Australian dijeridoos, and leaf-blowers.

Pena's adventures begin when he goes to a concert in Frisco given by Kongar-al Ondar, who is described as the Elvis of Tuvan throat-singing. Ondar hears Pena sing and invites him to go to Tuva to compete in a throat-singing contest. A somewhat bizarre organization known as the Friends of Tuva arranges the trip for Pena, his trombone-playing friend, a recording engineer, and an eccentric elderly DJ. They also arrange to have the trip filmed by Roko Belic and his brother.

The film is mostly about how Pena wins the hearts of Tuvans by singing traditional Tuvan folk songs, and then combining the singing style with the Delta blues he specializes in. It also concentrates on the friendship that is forged between Pena and Ondar.

While this is not exactly top-of-the-line stuff (Hi-Def video just ain't no substitute for film), and we never really learn about anyone besides Pena and the late physicist Richard Feynman, who co-founded the Friends of Tuva, this is truly a fascinating movie, so I gave it an 8.

The story of blind bluesman Paul Pena's trip to the little known republic of Tuva is certainly an unusual one. He learns about Tuvan throat singing by hearing it on a shortwave radio, learns how to throatsing himself. When a Tuvan throat-singing master visits the States, Paul and the singer encounter each other. Along with Friends of Tuva and a small film crew, Paul embarks on a trip to Tuva, meets the throat singer, and enters in a competition. Paul is a remarkably gifted musician, and the film manages to capture that as well as some of the pain, anxiety, and fear that he is feeling. Still, this documentary could have been filmed and edited in more capable hands. How Paul is feeling about his experiences as a blind person in a foreign place is not presented with the kind of power and clarity it could have been presented with. And the feeling arises watching the film that there are many elements to this story that the documentarian is not willing to explore. Still, Genghis Blues is a fascinating record of a meeting of cultures and musical styles.