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Mana: Beyond Belief
***
Directed by Peter Friedman
and Roger Manley
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Classification: PG
An American documentary devoted to deeply spiritual matters, Mana: Beyond Belief begins in an unpromisingly portentous manner. The early scenes call to mind such rep-cinema staples as Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka, slick new-age travelogues that present the picturesque rites and sights of faraway cultures. (Where exactly is rarely specified, but there's nary a strip mall to be found.)
Though stripped of their context, these images retain a patina of religiosity and significance, thereby helping First World viewers feel like they're pondering the big questions in between mouthfuls of popcorn, much as they did during last year's sleeper hit What the Bleep Do We Know!?.
Thankfully, Mana: Beyond Belief offers something more than bite-sized epiphanies. By the time the movie catches up to a coterie of Elvis impersonators in Memphis, Tenn., it's clear that the intentions of directors Peter Friedman and Roger Manley have different and more devious ambitions. As a Maori priest explains, mana means the "authority and prestige" that resides in things. Really, it is whatever an object possesses that inspires awe in its human admirers. Friedman and Manley offer a very broad and sometimes perverse selection of venerated items from around the globe. In Arizona, Navajo medicine men search for revelation inside pieces of crystal. In Burma, pilgrims come to ponder a golden boulder. In Benin, villagers take on the personalities of solemn, angry or mischievous spirits when they don colourful costumes.
As wondrous as they may be, the objects are nowhere near as fascinating as our behaviour around them. Take, for example, the Japanese businessmen and teenagers who come to ponder an ancient cherry tree -- then get sloshed on beer and sake. In retrospect, the revels of the costumed folks in Benin don't seem half as strange as the Elvis poses of Graceland's visitors or the frenzied hand signals of New York stock traders.
Mana: Beyond Belief also details how mana can be intentionally bestowed. After a U.S. congressman explains the high demand for American flags that have flown over the Capitol building, we witness countless flags being rapidly hoisted up and down just so each one can absorb a second or two of the building's aura. Just as droll is a scene in the church that contains the Holy Shroud of Turin, reputed to be Christ's burial shroud. After instructing visitors to turn off their cellphones and refrain from using flash photography, a recorded voice crisply states, "We hope you enjoy your spiritual journey."
With its many moments of wry humour and occasional disregard for ready distinctions between fact and fiction (the credits reveal that a shadowy bone collector is played by an actor), the film has less in common with cine-exotica like Baraka than the querulous docs of Errol Morris. Yet its tone does not descend into mockery thanks to the directors' patient interest in all these manifestations of belief.
Friedman and Manley also take great care in conveying the splendour of these objects and the world they occupy -- shot on high definition video and transferred to 35 mm, Mana: Beyond Belief is often startlingly beautiful. Even if it is too brief to do more than touch on some very, very big questions, the film is an entertaining survey of the many ways we humans imprint the material world with our sincerest hopes and daffiest delusions.
Mana: Beyond Belief plays July 26 to 30 at the Royal Cinema and opens August 5 at the Varsity.
