People and Places is a documentary film series about, well, people and places. Through these 17 travelogues, released from 1953 to 1960, viewers were taken on magic carpet rides to far-off lands such as Siam, Switzerland, Sardinia, and, on this day in 1957, the Sahara Desert in The Blue Men of Morocco. The movie presents a mysterious and enigmatic world, a place where more than 40,000 — no one knows precisely how many — descendants of Arab conquerors live, the last great nomads of the world. These nomads are deemed the “Blue Men” due to their bluish complexion — not a racial characteristic, but the consequence of color from their clothing staining their skin. Each morning, they turn to Mecca and thank Allah for the blessing of their remaining liberty, that liberty which, in spite of all the pain and hardships, they would not exchange for houses, which they could not carry on their journeys, nor for radios, since the world outside does not exist for them, nor for watches, since it is not their custom to count the time. This fascinating documentary tells of a European who one day said to a Blue Man, “I have flown in three hours the distance it takes your caravan a month to cross. Even you will admit that this is progress?” The Blue Man replied, “And the rest of the time, what do you do?”
