This is an excellent documentary, one of the best if not the best of 1999. Very sad, and moving as well as incredibly intriguing. The film chronicles Paul Pena an old musician who was plagued by illness and blind from birth. While surfing on his ham radio Paul hears Tuvan throat singing and searches all over the place to find the source of this bizarre and fascinating music. He becomes a natural throat singer and travels to Tuva to compete in a competition. Beautiful music throughout the film, and the Tuvan countryside looks as if it is a mystical land inhabited by friendly descendent's of Genghis Kahn who maintain a rich and textured culture. This is worth while for anyone who is interested in music, documentaries or Tuva.

I personally, was blown away by this movie. The story was brilliant, the singing great, and the people very intriguing. I can actually throat-sing pretty good just from seeing this movie, and listening to more throat-singing. This movie was nominated for best documentary at the Oscars, and I do not see how it could not have won. I do not know what movie won, but I can't believe that it would be better than "Genghis Blues". This is not a very mainstream movie, so probably not that many people have seen it, but if you have a chance to see it, please do, it's an excellent movie. And if you have the chance to take throat-singing lessons, please do, you'll enjoy it. I hope you found this helpful.

Wow! GENGHIS BLUES is a powerful piece of work. This documentary should be required viewing to help us all understand the nature of cultural diversity and the beauty of international exchange. What a hero Paul Pena is. And what a role model.

In 1995, an eclectic group of San Francisco musicians and their friends took a trip to the remote Russian-Mongolian region of Tuva, where one of them entered a throat-singing contest. The whole thing was filmed and this is the result.Paul "Earthquake" Pena is a blind San Francisco blues singer-guitarist-harmonica player who has worked with the likes of B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, and T-bone Walker. In the early '70's, he made a rock album that included the song "Jet Airliner", later covered and made into a hit by the Steve Miller Band. The important thing about Pena, as far as this film is concerned, however, is that he is a self-taught master of Tuvan-style throat-singing.Throat-singing is a style of singing where one sings two or three notes at once, with some very interesting harmonic effects. As pointed out in examples in the film, the sounds are similar to nose-flutes, Jews-harps, Australian dijeridoos, and leaf-blowers.Pena's adventures begin when he goes to a concert in Frisco given by Kongar-al Ondar, who is described as the Elvis of Tuvan throat-singing. Ondar hears Pena sing and invites him to go to Tuva to compete in a throat-singing contest. A somewhat bizarre organization known as the Friends of Tuva arranges the trip for Pena, his trombone-playing friend, a recording engineer, and an eccentric elderly DJ. They also arrange to have the trip filmed by Roko Belic and his brother.The film is mostly about how Pena wins the hearts of Tuvans by singing traditional Tuvan folk songs, and then combining the singing style with the Delta blues he specializes in. It also concentrates on the friendship that is forged between Pena and Ondar.While this is not exactly top-of-the-line stuff (Hi-Def video just ain't no substitute for film), and we never really learn about anyone besides Pena and the late physicist Richard Feynman, who co-founded the Friends of Tuva, this is truly a fascinating movie, so I gave it an 8.