Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Take a mini-vacation at the movies this summer
By Connie Schmitt
Two new films playing at OMNIMAX theater at Cincinnati Museum Center take viewers to the heart and soul of music and finally to the roof of Africa. Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa takes viewers on a trip to the highest freestanding mountain in the world while Pulse: A STOMP Odyssey takes a trip around the world, exploring the rhythms that connect all people together. Both films run June 14 through October 3. Tickets are $6.75 for adults and $4.75 for children. This is the first time the Museum Center has run two films concurrently so make sure to call ahead for showtimes.
Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa is one of those films made for the large format of the OMNIMAX theater. The five-story, 72 feet in diameter screen can captures the awe-inspiring view of Kilimanjaro, making the film seem more realistic. Not only does it afford the spectacular views it also explores some of mysteries surrounding the mountain.
Mt. Kilimanjaro lies near the equator in Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley. It was formed by three volcanoes—Kilbo (the tallest), Mawenzi, and Shira. Not to worry though, there hasn't been any volcanic activity on Kilimanjaro for the last 100,000 years. Because of its location and its formation, Kili has five different climates including rainforest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and arctic zones. Guide Jacob Kyungai, who has climbed to the peak about 250 times, explains it best. "It is like walking from the equator to the North Pole in only a week."
Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa follows the story of five climbers as they travel through rugged terrain and extreme conditions to the highest point in Africa. This group is as unique as Kilimanjaro itself. Ranging in ages 12 to 64 years, each has his or her own personality that adds to the group as a whole.
Besides Kyungai, the group includes 13 year old Hansi Mmari who lives in Africa at the base of Kili's peaks; historian Audrey Salkeld, age 64, who is on her first trip to Africa; Danish model and artist Heidi Albertson, age 23; Roger Bilham, a 55-year old British geophysicist and an authority on volcanoes; Nicole Wineland-Thomson, who because of her family's safari business is an accomplished traveler at the age of 12. Hiking to the roof of Africa isn't the typical walk in the forest. Each year, 15,000 people set out to climb to the roof of Africa. Only about half make it.
This group must brave the elements, including a drenching that drops more rain than the area had gotten in its entire wet season put together. After climbing for awhile, they get to the barren alpine desert before finally reaching the summit's crater and seeing sheer walls of ice. During the trip they'll discover plants they've never seen before and see animals that live on the upper reaches of the slopes.
With the spectacular views, audiences will leave feeling like they've been on a great summer vacation and learned something in the process. Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa was filmed by David Breashears, who brought us the story of Everest. These films are so beautiful it's difficult to remember the sheer technical difficulties in making a film of this scale. The film crew had to return to Kilimanjaro seven times to get enough footage to complete the film. Check out the making of Kilimanjaro at http://www.mos.org/kili/breashears.html
Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey is no less breathtaking, but for a different reason. This film is an expansion of the stage show STOMP created by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas and while Kilimanjaro used the large-format to capture the reality of a towering mountain, Pulse is all about the music. "We started out making a film about rhythm and it evolved into a film about humanity," McNicholas said. "Every culture has music, but the root of every form of music is rhythm, and rhythm is common to everyone." While the film does capture some powerful images - a battle of the bands on the Brooklyn Bridge, an all-day music festival in India complete with two rows of elephants decked out in gold - music takes main stage. Through all 44 speakers of the OMNIMAX theater, the audience will be swept away with the beat.
Rather than being inspired by STOMP, the film attempts to show the rhythm and cultures that inspired STOMP in the first place. The result is a world tour of cultures and music that the audience might, at first, find very foreign, but in the end the thread of rhythm that binds people together is very visible. Many cultures use music and dance to communicate and commemorate their cultures. Eva Yerbabuena, the world's foremost female flamenco dancer, is filmed performing atop the Alhambra Fortress in Grenada, Spain. With purple skirts swirling and her heels stomping, she is a whirlwind of motion and sound. While some flamenco dances are about love, others are about the Roma people who have been wanderers and social outcasts. Les Percussions De Guinee is a group from Guinea that was formed in 1987 to showcase and preserve the culture and heritage of that land using the djembe drums. The songs tell tales of coming-of-age and harvest celebrations. Not only that, but the drummers, who wear a large plume of white feathers on their heads, are able to communicate to each other through the different rhythms of the drums.
The Bayeza Cultural Dancers of Johannesburg, South Africa have taken that point a step further. This dancing group is based off of history. When gold was discovered in South Africa, Danish and English soon moved in and took over the mines and forced local people to work in the mines. At first they weren't allowed to speak to each other so, using their gumshoes, or galoshes, the miners worked out a system of communication by tapping on their boots. Today the Bayeza Cultural Dancers, wearing exactly what you'd expect to see a miner wearing, tap and stomp out stories of their past.
The film chases down other rhythms from the mathematical precision of the bell ringers in Winchester Cathedral in England to Kodo, a Japanese group that performs on the taiko drums. These drums, which can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds, produce a deep rumble. The Kodo performers believe that this sound is similar to the sound of a mother's heartbeat to her unborn baby, both powerful and soothing.
In the end, Pulse will get audiences moving and thinking about how the rhythm of music brings all people together. Check out http://www.pulsethemovie.com for a trailer and additional information about the film.
This is the first time two movies have been running at the same time for OMNIMAX so showtimes might be a little different. Call ahead to find out when each film will be playing. The Cincinnati Museum Center is also bringing back all the classic films that have played at OMNIMAX (just in case you missed them the first time around). On Friday, June 20 and 27, get a double feature with either Kilimanjaro or Pulse along with Ring of Fire. For more information about the classic films, check out http://www.cincymuseum.org/cmc/OMNIMAX/fridayfilmclassics.htm
Connie Schmitt is a freelance writer and long-time Cincinnati resident.
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