A film by Lavinia Currier Based on the memoir by Louis ... - FDb.cz

Bayakan people. But the result is much more than comedic: “The Bayakas took over this movie,” Bruce
says. “They were so authentic and good, the <strong>film</strong> became more poetic and less comedic. They were most
extraordinary to watch, and committed to making the story work because of their relationship with Louis –
who is one of them. So they really embraced Kris as Larry, and embraced the <strong>film</strong>.”
The <strong>film</strong> captures the imagination of the Bayaka in the form of their music – the songs that they
perform, often associated with ritual and play, echo the sounds of the rainforest around them. On the
soundtrack of “OKA!,” Larry’s recordings of the sounds of the rainforest – the wind, rain, chirping birds,
and animal cries – seem to blend seamlessly with the percussive and harmonic tones of the Bayakan music.
This is particularly captured in the final sequence, where the legendary instrument the molimo is revealed to
resemble the mating call of a wild elephant. Though the animal is beloved all over the world, in the wild
they are quite dangerous. “We had a second unit and their job was to <strong>film</strong> all of the elephant and difficult
wildlife scenes,” remembers Jamie Bruce. “Alphonse Roy Yogeswara is a well-respected Indian
cinematographer who had shot a lot of wildlife, but he’s used to working with a small crew, and Conrad
Hall had brought a large crew and a lot of equipment. I was recruited to do some ‘directing’ – when you
see the shots of the elephants running, that was me chasing them with a plastic bottle making noise right
behind them. If you are chasing them, it’s not so dangerous, as they are unlikely to turn around. But once
as I was chasing them, suddenly right next to us was another elephant off to the side, watching us harass his
herd. We had to freeze and not move for ten minutes – then he decided that we were nothing to worry
about and joined the other elephants in the clearing. We might call it foolish, but not that dangerous.”
While having ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno on hand as translator and inspiration for the story was
a boon to the production, the <strong>film</strong> also benefits from the work of musician Chris Berry, who was charged
with making the musical sounds of the Bayaka into a workable and dramatically consistent musical score.
A renowned drummer, Berry knew he would have to put his ego aside in order to fully embrace and
understand the power of the native musical styles. “I think what I tried to accomplish with the Bayaka is
not have them feel that they were put under a microscope,” he explains, “but that rather I was just another
musician sharing a musical experience with them.”
“The Bayakan people definitely lead with emotion and intuition,” says Berry. “Their music is the
epitome of the statement that <strong>Lavinia</strong> made to us about directing them – that they lead with their emotions.
That’s the conflict if you go into it from a rational standpoint and treat the music as a ‘rational’ object, but
we were able to break down that boundary. Their music is so unique because it works together like an
ecosystem – because they are so close to nature, it just reflects that energy.”
Berry notes that his western ears were not used to the complex rhythms of the tribe, which are
demarcated <strong>by</strong> a lengthy 64-beat cycle. “Most of our western pop music operates on a four or eight bar
cycle – the longest is usually sixteen bars,” he clarifies. “There are very few cultures, most of them related