Nexflix, the internet DVD rental by mail company, has started releasing DVDs available for rent only through their service.  They've bought the rights to several interesting and unique films and are giving them a wide audience through their service.  One of their releases in Mana - Beyond Belief, a gorgeously filmed documentary that looks at the wide variety of objects that people hold sacred and the rituals surrounding those objects.

The film starts off with a man explaining that anything which inspires people has mana.  From there, viewers are taken on a world wide tour of objects and places filled with this mystical energy.  From the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival to Graceland to the Shroud of Turin or a flag that has flown over the US Capital or even a low rider, what is an inspiration for one person can be an oddity to others.

Told without narration, this film lets viewers draw their own connections and conclusions from the items that are examined.  It's interesting to see how people working on the floor of a stock exchange act similar to native Africans celebrating and the crowds at Nashville seem to have a similar experience to pilgrims viewing the Shroud of Turin.

The lack of narration is a disadvantage at times.  It's hard to know just what some people are celebrating or revering at times, and others seem to call for comment.  The person, with his face always obscured for example, who collects and sells body parts of famous people.  While I found it hard to believe that he has the hand of Edgar Allan Poe and the skull of Marie Curie and her husband, someone should have cried "foul" at Amelia Earhart's finger.

Though this is a serious film, there are moments of humor too.  I had to laugh at the segment about flags being flown over the US capital.  Focusing on a flapping flag in the foreground, over to the right and far behind you see flags being hoisted up a pole and taken down again as soon as they reach the top.  Over and over, sometimes two at a time, the fact that these flags were briefly over the capital makes them precious to their owners.

The last segment was also very amusing.  Starting off with Sprach Zarathustra (the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) the camera focuses on the Forevertron, an enormous amount of electronic equipment and machinery that is supposed to allow the user to "perpetuate yourself back into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam."  The creator of this giant sculpture gives a brief tour, tour, tongue planted firmly in cheek the whole time.

While many of the segments are interesting, the real strength of this movie is its gorgeous cinematography.  Peter Friedman and Roger Manley who both co-wrote and co-directed this did a magnificent job at capturing the look and feel of these events.  The images were achingly beautiful at times, whether it was the blue sky above an African plain or the gold covered rocks at an Indian ceremony the images that fill this film look like photographs.

Audio:

This film is presented with a stereo soundtrack and fits the movie well.  The audio is a bit flat in parts, but sounds much better than a documentary has any right sounding.  The dialog is clear even when it is raining or other noises are in the background and there are no audio defects.  Many of the interviewees don't speak English, and their comments are translated via burned in subtitles.  The odd thing is that the English dialog is also presented with burned in subs.  I really wish that those had been optional.

Video:

Anamorphic widescreen carries an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.  The IMDB lists a ratio of 1.85:1, but this may be an error.  In any case the image quality is very good.  The colors are exceedingly strong with the white cherry blossoms coming through brightly and the colorful costumes of the native Africans being just dazzling.  Details are equally fine, with the grain in pieces of raw tuna being easy to see.  Digitally there were no defects worth commenting on.  I was really surprised that this documentary looked so good.

Extras:

There are no extras besides biographies of the filmmakers.

Final Thoughts:

An interesting and sometimes amusing film, Mana - Beyond Belief is a documentary that doesn't try to advance theories or advance an agenda but instead lets people view scenes from all over the world and draw their own conclusions.  A very beautiful film, this is a joy to watch even if you aren't interested in the subject matter.  Members of Netflix who are looking for something that's a bit different but worth while would do good to put this in their queue.  Recommended.