Around the world in 90 minutes with Brook Silva-Braga

The holiday shopping season is upon us, and that means only one thing: it’s time to express our love for others by giving them stuff. If you’re searching for the perfect gift for a fellow traveler, however, your shopping this year should be easy. Order Brook Silva-Braga’s round-the-world documentary A Map for Saturday.

If you haven’t heard by now, Brook was an Emmy-winning producer with HBO’s Inside the NFL, when he quit his job to take a trip around the world. Carrying nothing on his back but five pounds of clothes and 30 pounds of camera equipment, Brook created one of the best documentaries about round-the-world travel that’s ever been produced.

The film presents perfectly what traveling is all about– intense friendships that end much too quickly, the invigorating experience of near-constant movement around the globe, interacting with people from dozens of countries, learning what you’re made of, trying to figure out what the world is all about.

In addition, Brook documents the more practical side of independent travel, the part you won’t read about in many of those shiny travel magazines– shower shoes in dingy hostels, bumpy eight-hour bus rides, cooking pasta because it’s cheap and filling, the difficulty of keeping in touch with home.

The film was not only full of beautiful landscapes, street shots, and interviews, but it also had its share of poignant scenes. For instance, we see Brook talking to a couple of Indian shopkeepers, who ask him what his trip is all about. When he says that he quit his job to travel around the world, they look at him and say, “You didn’t feel like working?” And he has to admit that, no, he didn’t feel like working. He wanted to travel instead. This was a simple but powerful exchange that clearly showed a major difference between two cultures. In India, those who have jobs want desperately to keep them. Quitting your job to travel, or to do anything else, is usually not an option. In the United States, it often is, whether people realize it or not.

Brook uses his award-winning production talents to create a beautifully crafted film, one that should not be missed by anyone interested in independent travel.

For more on the movie, Check out Justin Glow’s review and his interview with its creator, Brook Silva-Braga.