Telluride Mountainfilm: Belic’s encore

22 May Telluride Mountainfilm: Belic’s encore

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Roko Belic]

In 1999, former Telluride Mountainfilm director Rick Silverman shared his film favorites. High on the list was "Genghis Blues." The heart-warmng film by brothers Adrian and Roko Belic tells the story of a Tuvan throat-singer Kongar-ol-Ondar and a blind San Franciscan bluesman, Paul Pena, who taught himself to throat sing, a popular form of entertainment in southern Siberia. Ten years later, Festival program director David Holbrooke has asked the brothers and the "Elvis of Tuva" to return to town for a program encore.

Following their score at the 21st annual Mountainfilm, Roko partnered with Italian explorer and author Folco Terzani to make another film, "Twilight Men, the true story of a Westerner and an Indian holy man who go into the Himalayas in search of an enlightened master.

For the past three years, Roko has been working on a documentary about happiness, inspired by his friend, filmmaker Tom Shadyac (director of "Bruce Almighty," "Ace Ventura," "Patch Adams" and a big time Mountainfilm supporter).
The pair have traveled to 14 countries to share the wisdom of ordinary people from different cultures and relay the findings of the world's leading happiness researchers. That project is nearly complete.

The two are also working on a second collaboration, which deals with the sturmiest and drangiest of subjects: our Humpty Dumpty world. The idea is to answer two big questions: "What's wrong with the world?" and, "What can we do about it?" To date they have interviewed some of the leading thinkers of our time: Howard Zinn, David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Lynn McTaggart, Elizabeth Sahtouris, Desmond Tutu, Dean Radin…

Adrian's solo endeavor involved both directing and distributing a documentary, "Beyond the Call," about three extraordinary former military guys who go into war zones delivering medecine and relief supplies. That film was shot in Afganistan, Thailand, and the Phillipines and has won many awards on the festival circuit. It was also theatrically released in the U.S.