Daniel Lak: you'll have to start practicing throatsinging in my garden. Having seen Genghis Blues, I too couldn't tell if it was a tale of, as you say, "immense human dignity" or one told by "New Orientalists". (Here and There, #20) White boys in Mongolia: I was wary from the start. My Orientalist radar did beep several times during the film, but I was so won over by Paul Pena that I eventually threw away that radar. Pena never arms himself against his unfamiliar milieu; he opens his heart to viewers, exposing his inmost joys and anguishes, and offering us the gift of his humanity. That the rest of us might remain equally open when we travel...or even when we see travel documentaries.


Manjushree Thapa
Kathmandu