An art-house circuit sensation, this feature-length documentary is visually arresting and possesses a clear, pro-environmental political agenda. Without a story, dialogue, or characters, Koyaanisqatsi (the film’s title is a Hopi word roughly translated into English as “life out of balance”) is composed of nature imagery, manipulated in slow motion, double exposure or time lapse, juxtaposed with footage of humans’ devastating environmental impact on the planet. Starting with an ancient rock wall painting, the film moves through sequences depicting clouds, waves, and other natural features, then into man-made landscapes such as buildings, earth-altering construction machinery, and cars. –amctv
Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente, a facility that provided medical care to 12,000 community members in Santa Fe, and La Gente, a community-organizing project in Northern New Mexico’s barrios. In 1963 he co-founded Young Citizens for Action, a community organization project that aided juveniles among the street gangs in Santa Fe. In 1972, he co-founded the Institute for Regional Education in Santa Fe, a non-profit foundation focused on media development, the arts, community organization, and research.
Reggio has been involved in many progressive political causes in the United States, including work for the American Civil Liberties Union, co-organizing a multi-media public interest campaign on the invasion of privacy and the use of technology to control behavior. Reggio resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is currently focusing… read more
After about the 6th viewing of this, I think I've put this film in some sort of "place" where it belongs. It is a meditative film. Of course, the imagery can be heavy-handed, which can distract from the meditative process, but I believe ignoring the artists intention in this film really transforms it into something beyond a preachy documentary.
really the only way i can imagine killing another human being is if they insulted koyaanisqatsi.
Glass’s Ninth Symphony is performed tonight and the revived opera Einstein on the Beach tours the world this year.
There are two ways I can think of to review a movie: The first is to simply describe the movie, the second is to [futilely] try to analyze the movie.
Neither of these options seemed to work… read review
