Genghis Blues is one of the greatest adventure movies of all time. Thank god it’s also a documentary, because if it were fiction, you’d never believe that a legendary-yet-unknown blind bluesman would join up with a ragtag group of twenty-somethings to travel to an equally unknown place, Tuva, deep in Siberia and bordering Mongolia, to sing the most difficult technique of singing: throat singing.
As I’ve been interviewing for this site, I’ve come to find that a lot of documentary filmmakers dive into the deep end on their very first movie. That was certainly the case with Mike Jacobs, whose brilliant vérité epic Audience of One was also his first feature. I think it’s a testament to the form. Vérité filmmaking certainly requires less; you don’t need a script or a crew or even much gear. In fact, all you really need is an idea, a camera, and the willingness to go all in. That third quality is pretty rare, and as you’ll see from my interview, Roko and his brother have that quality in spades. However, it’s pretty rare that first timers have the massive success that Roko had. Genghis Blues was not only a journey of a film, but also a journey that took a kid from college into adulthood, to San Francisco, to Tuva, to the winners circle at Sundance, and finally, to an Oscar nomination for best documentary, all on his first at bat.
What Roko Belic achieved with this film is beyond remarkable. I sat down with Roko to find out just how that story got to be so well-told, and what life was like after Blues’ premiere in 2000.
Continue reading An Interview with Roko Belic, Director Of One Of The Greatest Adventure Movies Of All Time, ‘Genghis Blues’
