History Film / GenghisBlues

A low-key film shot on video, it became a SleeperHit among documentary fans, winning an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and getting nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature. It also brought new attention to Pena and his music. Sadly, both Pena (in 2005 at age 55 from pancreatitis and diabetes) and Kongar-ol Ondar (in 2013 at age 51 from a brain hemorrhage) ended up suffering untimely deaths.

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: While the Steve Miller Band version of "Jet Airliner" is briefly played early in the film, Pena's original 1973 version (which was unreleased at time the film debuted) accompanies the scenes of the flight(s) to Tuva. While the airplane connection is obvious, a lot of the lyrics end up applying to the story quite well.
-->You gotta go through hell before you get to heaven.

* GutturalGrowler: The basic sound of throat-singing, in which the singer focuses their vocalizing in their chest, and tries to vocalize several tones simultaneously. Paul is so skilled at producing a loud rumble that Kongar-ol nicknames him "Earthquake". In interviews outside this documentary Pena explained that he realized there was an affinity between throat-singing and the tradition of guttural vocals in {{Blues}} by the likes of Music/HowlinWolf.

* GutturalGrowler: The basic sound of throat-singing, in which the singer focuses their vocalizing in their chest, and tries to produced several tones simultaneously. Paul is so skilled at producing a loud rumble that Kongar-ol nicknames him "Earthquake". In interviews outside this documentary Pena explained that he realized there was an affinity between throat-singing and the tradition of guttural vocals in {{Blues}} by the likes of Music/HowlinWolf.

* DoingItForTheArt [[invoked]]: Paul had no financial incentive to learn an arcane form of singing or travel halfway around the world to perform it. He did it purely out of his love for the music.

* WorldMusic: The uniqueness of throat-singing began to gain it a worldwide audience in TheNineties (which is how Paul met Kondar-ol). Paul also invited Mario Casetta, who was an influential figure in publicizing international folk music in America, to join him in Tuva.

** Paul painstakingly rehearses a song by throat-singer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Oidupaa Vladimir Oidupaa]] for the competition, then learns from Kongar-ol backstage before the performance that Oidupaa was in prison and was a very divisively controversial figure in Tuva. With five minutes to figure out a contingency plan, Paul ends up improvising a song using his limited knowledge of Tuvan, mostly FanFlattering about Tuva and its people, which gets a rapturous reception. So positive, in fact, that at the second performance he sings the Oidupaa song, knowing that the audience loved him enough to overlook any issues they might have with the song's background.

* UndesirablePrize: At least in Paul's eyes; the prize for winning the competition is a horse.

* CursedItem: After a while, things start to take a bad turn for the main figures in the film. Paul's medication starts to run out and he considers cutting the trip short, but then can't book a flight out. Mario suffers a heart attack. Kongar-ol gets in a fight with a man who confronts him on the street and breaks his hand. Serious consideration is given to the possibility that a shaman's drum Paul bought may have gotten all of them cursed. But after a shaman examines the drum, they get an all-clear and everyone's situation improves.

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: [[ZigzaggingTrope Zig-zagged]], since Paul's blindness makes his mastery of a wholly different musical culture and language extremely impressive, but in the film he makes several comments about how his sightlessness sometimes means that he doesn't fully know what's happening in a situation, and how disoriented he can feel in crowds.

** Paul painstakingly rehearses a song for the competition, then learns from Kongar-ol backstage before the performance that the composer is now in prison and the audience would disapprove. With five minutes to figure out a contingency plan, Paul ends up improvising a song using his limited knowledge of Tuvan, mostly FanFlattering about Tuva and its people, which gets a rapturous reception. So positive, in fact, at the second performance he sings the song he originally rehearsed, knowing that the audience loved him enough to overlook any problems with the song's background.

* CursedItem: After a while, things start to take a bad turn for the main figures in the film. Paul's medication starts to run out and he considers cutting the trip short, but then can't book a flight out. Mario suffers a heart attack. Kongar-ol gets in a fight with a man who confronts him on the street and breaks his hand. Serious consideration is given to the possibility that a shaman's drum Paul bought may have led to a curse. But after a shaman examines the drum, they get an all-clear and everyone's situation improves.

The film's central figure is SingerSongwriter Paul Pena (1950–2005). Best known for writing the Music/SteveMillerBand hit "Jet Airliner", Pena was a BlindMusician with eclectic influences. Despondent after the death of his wife, Pena became interested in listening to language lesson programs on shortwave radio. In 1984 he was tuning around for a Korean lesson, but instead picked up a Radio Moscow broadcast of unusual singing and became intrigued. He learned that it was the throat-singing tradition of Tuva, a small republic that's officially part of Siberia, wedged between it and UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}}, and set about teaching himself both the singing style and the Tuvan language. His vocalizing impressed Tuvan singing master Kongar-ol Ondar, who went on tour in America in TheNineties, and Kongar-ol invited Pena to Tuva to take part in a 1995 throat-singing symposium and competition. The documentary follows Pena and several associates as they travel from Pena's home in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco to the remote outpost and learn about the culture of the land as it tries to recover its heritage and identity after the fall of the Soviet Union.

A low-key film shot on video, it became a SleeperHit among documentary fans, winning an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and getting nominated for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDocumentaryFeature. It also brought new attention to Pena and his music.

The film's central figure is SingerSongwriter Paul Pena (1950–2005). Best known for writing the Music/SteveMillerBand hit "Jet Airliner", Pena was a BlindMusician with eclectic influences. Despondent after the death of his wife, Pena became interested in listening to language lesson programs on shortwave radio. In 1984 he was tuning around for a Korean lesson, but instead picked up a Radio Moscow broadcast of unusual singing and became intrigued. He learned that it was the throat-singing tradition of Tuva, a small republic that's officially part of Siberia, wedged bewteen it and UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}}, and set about teaching himself both the singing style and the Tuvan language. His vocalizing impressed Tuvan singing master Kongar-ol Ondar, who went on tour in America in TheNineties, and Kongar-ol invited Pena to Tuva to take part in a 1995 throat-singing symposium and competition. The documentary follows Pena and several associates as they travel from Pena's home in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco to the remote outpost and learn about the culture of the land as it tries to recover its heritage and identity after the fall of the Soviet Union.