Thursday 12 July 2012

Godfrey Reggio & Phillip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi


Phillip Glass  - Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. 1982
cinematography by Godfrey Reggio



Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass. Mostly made up from slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities across the USA, the film is the first in the Qatsi Trilogy which depicts mans relationship to environment. 

Very quickly becoming a cult film, Koyaanisqatsi aided in popularizing modern understandings of Global economic and environmental issues. Although Reggio stated that the Qatsi films are intened only to create an experience and that "it is up to the viewer to take for himself/herself what it is that the film means" the iconic filming of buildings such as the Pruitt Igoe housing estate in Missouri became a well known comment on the potential crisis the world was heading into.