World Out of Balance
KOYANISQAATSI: The greatest event in the history of mankind has occurred recently, and has been largely missed by both the media and academia. Beyond the headlines and every day crises of international events, a deeper shift in human affairs has occurred: Humanity no longer exists in the natural world, we are no longer connected to it.
I FIRST WATCHED KOYAANISQATSI when I was 19, it was the end of the 80s and I was meeting new artist/musician friends. This was before I went to film school, before I studied cinema, and before I was exposed to a bunch of art and culture I’ve been lucky enough to trip upon since then. But just coming to this film with an open mind was enough. It was deep, and I felt it, and it rang out within me for a long time.
From the imdb.com summary [my emphasis]:
This movie was designed to have no plot. Meaning is to be created by the viewer, and only the viewer can give value to the images and music. That said, there is a central idea behind the movie, and according to the director it is this:
The greatest event in the history of mankind has occurred recently, and has been largely missed by both the media and academia. Beyond the headlines and every day crises of international events, a deeper shift in human affairs has occurred: Humanity no longer exists in the natural world, we are no longer connected to it. It is not that we are now users of technology, but rather that we exist within technology, we are part of it and it is part of us. The natural world now exists only to support the artificial one in which we live.
The way these fims use cinema is poetic, brilliant, and while it may at first test the average U.S. moviegoing mind (or be “slower” than one is used to absorbing and certainly less linear and less narrative than mainstream USA cinema) they really are worth gearing over to appreciate. They are profound—though not for the short attention span—and they tell a truth that commerce and capitalist societies like ours are not really allowed to teach because the message directly attacks commerce and the most voracious of capitalism’s benefactors. (Even the scientists, who are much more literal and authoritative than artists or filmmakers, were hushed from telling some of these truths in the past few years.)
Shot by Ron Fricke, scored by Philip Glass, and directed by Godfrey Reggio, this trilogy is essentially montages of music and imagery. They have no dialogue and so use form, sound, juxtaposition and music quite to tell a story and issue their warning. They are like…impressionist art that you can breathe in and hear making a sound as it wraps around your understanding. I mean that…if you haven’t peeped these yet, watch this clip as if you would take in a piece of abstract art. With patience and love. Wait for it to reveal itself to you, the light shimmering on the planes, the curvature of negative space, the clusters of color and tone, the human emotion given shape not by facial expression so much as the taut mounds of bodies, the slumped figure of a collapsed worker being hauled on someone’s back, the legs and legs and legs angling up, the mud-streaked muscles straining in a pack.
These films will speak to you in sometimes unexpected and deep ways. They just ask a little time and room.
This clip is introductory scene to Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation [Hopi: Way of living/life that consumes other life in order to advance its own], the second film in the trilogy that begins with Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance and ends with Naqoyqatsi.
UPDATE: Full film Koyaanisqatsi [gracias, smartypants].
And the trailer to Koyaanisqatsi:
Tags: Biosphere, Black Friday, Capitalism, Consumerism, Environment, Exploitation, Film, Keep Shopping, Koyaanisqatsi, Life out of Balance, Materialism, Naqoyqatsi, Parasites, Planet, Pollution, Powaqqatsi, Waste, Youtube
Posted in Arte, Cultura, Filmmakers, Filmmaking/Video, Media, Painting, Politics
Yes seconded, saw these as each came out and a friend of mine has seen them all over the world in all kinds of venues and always enjoys the experience (sometimes herbally assisted, late night show, good stuff). In fact he made mp3 recordings of the soundtrack which went well with various remote jungles, mountains then cities he’d travel through, so it was taking the film back to the real in a way. No sign yet though of a move back towards a balance and it would be smart to do that before we are forced to do it by circumstance. The earth works in renewing cycles with a certain capacity, unbound capitalism’s infinite growth is not it’s friend.