{"id":98459,"date":"2022-05-07T03:01:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T21:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/crows-are-white-review-looking-for-answers-among-marathon-monks\/"},"modified":"2022-05-07T03:01:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T21:31:07","slug":"crows-are-white-review-looking-for-answers-among-marathon-monks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/crows-are-white-review-looking-for-answers-among-marathon-monks\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Crows Are White’ Review: Looking for Answers Among Marathon Monks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A fresh new voice in nonfiction filmmaking, Ahsen Nadeem never intended to make the doc that became \u201cCrows Are White\u201d as deeply, disarmingly personal as it turned out, but in re-centering the focus on himself, he arrived at a much more honest movie. Approaching the subject in the vulnerable, open-book tradition of cine-essayists Ross McElwee (\u201cSherman\u2019s March\u201d) or Caveh Zahedi (\u201cI Am a Sex Addict\u201d), Nadeem, who was raised Muslim in Saudi Arabia, works through why he found himself so conflicted about his religious upbringing, as well as how to break the news to his parents that he intended to marry a non-Muslim woman. The result is an introspective \u2014 and at times uncomfortably irreverent \u2014 journey for both him and the audience.<\/p>\n

Nadeem\u2019s original intention was to investigate the \u201cmarathon monks\u201d of Mount Hiei, Japan, who seek spiritual enlightenment by walking a repetitive course known as the kaih\u014dgy\u014d, equivalent to the circumference of the Earth (roughly 24,000 miles), over seven years. Tendai Buddhist monks are sworn to silence during this time, and must agree to either hang or disembowel themselves if they should fail. It\u2019s safe to say, they take their faith seriously. Nadeem does not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a fantastic liar,\u201d admits director, whose family eventually relocated to Ireland, where he drifted away from Islam, while pretending to remain devout for his parents\u2019 benefit. Much of what follows reflects his true (non)belief: Disingenuous at best, if not downright disrespectful, the film serves as an avowed nonbeliever\u2019s blithe assessment of centuries-old traditions that, to outsider eyes, can\u2019t help seeming a little ridiculous. But then, if approached with skepticism, there\u2019s an element of absurdity to nearly all religious practices, from circumcision (genital mutilation) to Communion (symbolic cannibalism) to the berserk hot-pink call-to-prayer clock that went off at random times in Nadeem\u2019s childhood home.<\/p>\n

After dedicating two years to convincing the monks to let him visit Mount Hiei and film their intensely private rituals, Nadeem blows it by forgetting to silence his cellphone during a meditation ceremony. He\u2019s immediately ejected from the monastery and obliged to rethink the entire project. The documentary might have ended there, but instead, Nadeem keeps filming over several more years, during which he remains stubbornly committed to interviewing Kamahori, the monk he\u2019d initially wanted to make the film about.<\/p>\n

Strangely, Nadeem doesn\u2019t seem to have prepared specific questions for this meeting, and when the long-pursued on-camera conversation does come (having completed the kaih\u014dgy\u014d, Kamahori is now free to talk), their session is interrupted by a phone call. This time, it\u2019s the monastery phone that rings, cutting short the scene \u2014 perfect karma.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s the influence of Bill Maher (\u201cReligulous\u201d) and Albert Brooks (\u201cLooking for Comedy in the Muslim World\u201d), or else an extension of \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d correspondents\u2019 gotcha shtick, but when comedic filmmakers incorporate themselves in their work, they tend to make themselves look superior to their subjects. Not Nadeem. He\u2019s candid about his spiritual uncertainty and personal shortcomings. For years, the director admits, he has been leading a double life: He lies to his parents, allowing them to believe he still prays regularly, while neglecting to tell them about his fianc\u00e9e, Dawn.<\/p>\n

He and Dawn practice far more healthy communication than Nadeem does with his mom and dad, and she\u2019s surprisingly open on camera (a scene of her nervously pacing toward the end cinches the film\u2019s emotional journey). At one point, Nadeem films his wife-to-be wondering, \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t know who he is, how can I fully invest in a future with this person?\u201d \u2014 a fair question. Although the movie inevitably builds to the moment when Nadeem must \u201ccome out\u201d to his parents, it\u2019s not clear how much he actually tells them. (Do they know that he\u2019s made a near-complete break from his faith?)<\/p>\n

Back in Japan, while trying to salvage the film he was making about Kamahori, Nadeem meets Mount Hiei\u2019s lowest-ranking monk, Ryushin, who speaks English and helps to demystify certain Tendai customs \u2014 like the one where monks are locked in complete darkness and not allowed to lie down or sleep for 90 days. Ryushin is on a spiritual journey of his own, trying to reconcile his love for sweets and heavy-metal music with the asceticism of his peers. It\u2019s amusing but also quite humanizing to witness a monk wearing headphones or attending a Slayer concert. Ryushin\u2019s attitude aligns more with the Western pursuit of personal gratification than with the relatively self-effacing position of the senior monk who explains the film\u2019s title: Religion relies on faith \u2014 i.e., trusting what one\u2019s spiritual leaders say, even when it appears to be illogical, difficult or false.<\/p>\n

Remember, Nadeem opens \u201cCrows Are White\u201d by confessing his own habit of dishonesty. Throughout, the filmmaker presents himself as lazy and undisciplined, awestruck by the monks. But think about what this film represents: years of borderline-obsessive dedication to chronicling a closed religious community, plus the commitment and humility to return after making a fool of himself early on. For some, walking 24,000 miles in wordless silence is the route to enlightenment. For Nadeem, he paved his own path.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fresh new voice in nonfiction filmmaking, Ahsen Nadeem never intended to make the doc that became \u201cCrows Are White\u201d as deeply, disarmingly personal as it turned out, but in re-centering the focus on himself, he arrived at a much more honest movie. Approaching the subject in the vulnerable, open-book tradition of cine-essayists Ross McElwee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":98460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Crows-Are-White-Review-Looking-for-Answers-Among-Marathon-Monks.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}