Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World (TV)
Why have I been obsessed with watching a 28-year-old documentary series that has had no significant footprint on society, and is unavailable except for on YouTube? That would be the composer for the series, Hans Zimmer. When I started to dive into Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks, I bought almost as many soundtracks for films he’d scored that I hadn’t seen than scores for films I had seen; that was how much his music impacted me in 1998-99. (And there are some of those I still haven’t seen.) His score for “Millennium,” however, has always been a favorite of mine. His integration of African sounds within a modern soundscape was one of his primary calling cards as a film composer early in his career; the pinnacle of this was his Oscar-winning score for “The Lion King.” Personally, the way he and Mark Mancina use synths and African instruments and chants here are richer, more emotional. Now, finally hearing them within the context of the series at last, I appreciate what he’s done even more.
The truth is, “Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World” probably deserves more of a footprint on our society than it has been given over the decades. In the 10-part series, Harvard anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis is our guide through journeys into the tribal world, and how their ancient practices, and ideas on what matters in life, might provide us insight on how we might approach life as the 20th Century came to a close. The series was conceived by Richard Meech, but it is Maybury-Lewis’s voice that we hear on the soundtrack, as he sets the stage for each chapter, asks questions that will be answered in each chapter, and comes to conclusions based on what we have just seen. Zimmer’s soundtrack, filled with emotion and atmosphere, is a great counterpoint to the context-filled narration by Mabury-Lewis, and the two take us on a journey of purpose and interest that will be hard to get out of our minds.
One of the things I think people might most appreciate about “Millennium” is how, it’s less a travelogue told from Mabury-Lewis’s point-of-view (although the first episode, which has him revisiting an area he visited earlier in life, steers close to that) and more an oral history, which Mabury-Lewis provides interstitial segments in between, asking questions fundamental to each episode’s theme. Let’s think about that first episode (“The Shock of the Other”)- it has Mabry-Lewis and his crew going through the bureaucratic steps of seeking permission. In a bar that the crew eats at early on in the episode, an “Alien” poster can be seen on the wall. Is the entire series going to show a continual pushing of modern culture on areas that are being decimated by de-forestation or cultural domination? No; this first episode is compelling, however, in how Mabury-Lewis’s attempts to be respectful of the tribes and cultures he is looking to film (ie. asking for permission) causes a dilemma- what if they say no? Wouldn’t it be easier for them to just shoot their footage, not worrying about whether they want them to or not? Yes, but Mabury-Lewis’s desire to be respectful is admirable; after all, modern civilization doesn’t always ask for permission when it encroaches on rural villages. That’s something we’ll see, time and again, in this series, and something Mabury-Lewis is asking us to consider before we do just decide that modernity is the way to go for everyone.
The approach in each episode is to let us feel the experience of the people and societies we are watching, and I love that. “Millennium” is about presenting us a new perspective on life that we might take into society moving forward after watching this series. That first episode is almost a red herring- while it does critique our tendency to transfer our way of life to societies different than us throughout the episodes, the series is attempting to show us what we’re missing by not seeking out the wisdom of the tribal world. Whether it’s in our care more for possessions than people (“A Poor Man Shames Us All”); our desire to dominate nature rather than live harmoniously with it (“An Ecology of Mind”); how we seem to separate art as something to be apart of life rather than seeing creative expression as a fundamental part of life (“The Art of Living”); and the importance of the spiritual journey, especially in the context of a physical one (“Touching the Timeless”), more than ever before, the concepts “Millennium” explores in its 10 episodes feel important for us in trying to solve the problems of our time. It’s not just about asking spiritual questions of its viewers- we get moral questions in regards to how two native tribes have wrestled with the rules of the dominant governmental body (“The Tightrope of Power”); how personal love coincides with societal stability (“Strange Relations”); questions about how Western societies seem to give people a sense of identity through biological questions, while tribal cultures define it through relationships with others, and rites of passage for the living and dead (“Mistaken Identity”); the ways in which the spiritual world can help us answer questions science can only go so far in answering (“Inventing Reality”); and finally, the struggle of personal desires vs. societal needs, body vs. soul, heart vs. need (“At the Threshold”). These are all fundamental human struggles, all of which we feel every day of our lives, whether it’s seeing the society as a whole struggle, or it’s a personal one. They are explored with humanity and empathy for all.
Now that I’ve seen “Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World,” I feel enlightened, and enriched. The past few months of 2020, defined by a global pandemic that relies a lot on our love for our fellow man, and a reconsidering of the society we’ve built, seem like the type of thing Meech and Marbury-Lewis were trying to warn us about in 1992. We need to rethink our relationship with nature, our value of possessional wealth over personal happiness, and how science, the arts and the spirit can coexist, and teach us a great deal about ourselves. I’m not sure if I’d call it the best discovery I’ve made as a viewer the past few months, but it’s probably the most meaningful, and I’m grateful that Hans Zimmer’s music finally led me to do so.
