Qatsi Trilogy

Recently I saw an interesting interview about Godfrey Reggio, director of the Qatsi Trilogy where Nikola Danaylov questioned about his background, the movies and his poetic view of life. This reminded me to rewatch Godfrey's most famous film.

Koyaanisqatsi is an artistic approach of cinematography where as there is no basic plot, script or characters to accompany viewers. Instead, direction and progression are key words here, for what we perceive is a process of nature, and the rise of human society, most specifically, technology.

Also translated as life out of balance, the movie shows a poetic view of how technology continues to blend in with humans further and further, while the nature of this happening tends to look orderly, but unconsciously can be argued to be chaotic over the long term.

Take a look at anno 2014. In the interview, Reggio argues that society is on a course of madness while embracing all these technological advancements. Think of your life and society in general. How much of that is assisted by technology? How much information do you think you gather daily nowadays?

I will concede that Godfrey's reasoning isn't the most convenient, but he sure as hell has a very unusual way of thinking about big topics such as the singularity and how he describes his "Beast" that surrounds mankind.

Transportation, production, spacecraft, nuclear weapons, pollution, societal stress, urban development, resource management, the environment and other key terms were noticed by me upon watching the film. It doesn't explain the scenes, nor has it a clear message, but it did let me think about the world we live in today, and also how relevant this all was in 1982.

The song starting around the 49th minute until around the 66th minute is the one I remember for being the most powerful while the very fast moving scenes of human society blast through. This odd combination of fast movements and powerful songs honestly are the strong points of the movie in the sense of art and presentation.

I'm glad that Koyaanisqatsi did not drag out slowly all the way through as it's opening shot did of about 20 minutes, before humanity is spotted. I understand that there was a time before our existence, and also the importance of that fact, that doesn't change the way how I felt about the opening.

The Qatsi Trilogy is expanded by the sequels Powaqqatsi(1988) and Naqoyqatsi(2002). The quality falls lower with each title in my opinion, but definitely check out the first one for something completely different that might blow your mind in some way.

Rating: 7.5