Images courtesy of the Godfrey Reggio Collection at the Harvard Film Archives
KOYAANISQATSI
Purpose
Not for the answers that might be given, but for the questions that can be raised is this website established. Indeed, the question is the mother of the answer. KOYAANISQATSI’s task is to raise questions that only its audience might answer.
KOYAANISQATSI is the first part of the QATSI Trilogy. POWAQQATSI, the second film, was completed in 1988. NAQOYQATSI, as yet unfunded and in search of an angel/investor, will complete the Trilogy. As KOYAANISQATSI focuses on the north and POWAQQATSI on the south, NAQOYQATSI will project its gaze on the global world. With NAQOYQATSI’s completion, the QATSI Trilogy will stand as a cinematic utterance to an untellable event – the technological transformation of the planet.
Also, found on this site is the film ANIMA MUNDI. While out-of-sequence of the Trilogy, ANIMA MUNDI has a place in the Trilogy’s progression. All of us who participated in its making bonded in our commitment to realize NAQOYQATSI. What we learned here could be taken there. The Trilogy represents a process, a long span of reflection and production. ANIMA MUNDI’s subject and cinematic treatment expanded the QATSI effort. Created in 1991 with a gift from the Bulgari family of Rome, ANIMA MUNDI was offered as a media voice to the WWF in support of their biological diversity campaign.
As the general focus of the QATSI Trilogy is the technological milieu, it is the purpose of this site to foster a web-dialogue on this little understood, yet ubiquitous subject – the nature of technology. What we know about the subject is vastly promotive, over-the-top positive, coming to us from the producers of global technology. A glowing wonderland of unlimited opportunity is promised by the good life of the technological order. Infinite capacity, virtual immortality, super human cognition – attributes that have until now been reserved for the divine are indicated for technology. A new technological pantheon has been established in the horizonless world of the Blue Planet.
But is technology what it appears to be? Have we looked behind the shimmer of its glowing surface? Very little, if anything, reveals its meaning through mere appearances. Most everything is more complex, full with a universe of hidden dimensions. Is technology an exception to this common experience? Or, have we accepted its truth as the truth? Is technology a new and comprehensive environment, the host of life, that has replaced the natural order? Is technology the new universal religion? Can faiths unquestioned become our prisons? Should we place blind faith in the techno-clergy of the new order? Does the computer reproduce the world in its own image and likeness? Is technology a mere tool, as we are told, that can be used or misused depending on one’s intentions? Is technology neutral? Does it possess a life of its own? Is it the effect of technology on this or that (the environment, etc.), or is it that everything is situated in technology? Has technology become an addiction, an altered state that we cannot live without? Is technology a way of living? Do we use technology or do we live technology? Is it our consciousness that informs our behavior or is it our behavior that informs our consciousness? Do we now live in a world beyond the senses, in a micro-universe, where small is dangerous? Is technology synonymous with the machine or has it become ordinary daily living?
What better place to raise these and other questions that on/in the global Internet? This high-tech nervous system, this digital alchemy, this synthetic organism that is changing the world seems ideally suited for such a task. If entering the medium questioned to raise questions seems contradictory, this is because it is. To freely embrace this contradiction is the motivation for this site.
Like the oxygen we breathe, technology is the big force, omnipresent and inescapable. It appears as a force of nature. Who can question nature or acts of god? Something this prevailing, this present, is normally taken for granted. Only the heretic could dare to be so blasphemous.
Could it be that our language is no longer capable of describing the world in which we live? Perhaps, the world we see with old eyes and antique ideas is no longer present. Do we inhabit a technological universe the laws of which are unknown? The world we see is being left behind.
A new untellable world is unfolding. As the human race accelerates into the twenty-first century, we enter a virtual, digital environment, a world where far and near, past, present and future are simultaneous realities. The human center of gravity seems to be blasted into the void. Our bodies are less central to our lives, our physical involvement with an increasing synthetic world grows less. Have we arrived at an unthinkable post-natural and post-human condition? Does this singular event offer to all that will, the extraordinary opportunity to re-name the world in which we live? Are we, appearing to be human, already the cyborgs of the fiction of science?
These are the questions that motivated KOYAANISQATSI, the other films of the Trilogy and, hence, the website that we offer for your participation, inquiry and dialogue. This is our beginning effort to supposit these films into the web, to mainline the QATSI Trilogy.
In closing we offer two reflections that articulate the point of view of this site: one from Elias Canetti, a Nobel Laureate for literature; the other from French philosopher and writer Jacques Ellul.
A tormenting thought: as of a certain point, history was no longer real. Without noticing it, all mankind suddenly left reality.
- Canetti
"...The crisis that we are approaching today is of yet another order. For it entails the transition, not from one form of society and power to another, but to a new environment...The present crisis...is a total crisis triggered by transition to a new and previously unknown environment, the technological environment....The present change of environment is much more fundamental than anything that the race has experienced for the last five thousand years."
- Ellul
Contact Park Circus for info regarding worldwide theatrical and non-theatrical exhibition of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi
Contact MGM (comments@mgm.com) for info regarding worldwide TV and Home Use for Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi
Contact Miramax for info regarding worldwide TV and Home Use for Naqoyqatsi
Contact Pomegranate Arts for info regarding live performances of the Qatsi trilogy
Credits
An IRE Production
Produced & Directed by
Godfrey Reggio
Director of Photography
Ron Fricke
Music
Philip Glass
Philip Glass Music:
Produced & Recorded by
Kurt Munkacsi
Conducted by
Michael Riesman
Music Director & Additional Music
Michael Hoenig
Editors
Alton Walpole
Ron Fricke
Concept
Godfrey Reggio
Dramaturge
Walter Bachauer
Scenario
Ron Fricke
Godfrey Reggio
Michael Hoenig
Creative Consultant
Bradford Smith
Associate Producers
Lawrence Taub
T. Michael Powers
Alton Walpole
Roger McNew
Mel Lawrence
IRE Coordinator
Stephen Goldin
Audio & Electronic Engineering
Michael Stocker
Music & Effects Editor
David Rivas
Re-Recording Mixer
Steve Maslow, C.A.S.
Camera Assistants
Robert Hill
David Brownlow
Roger McNew
Neil Bockman
Associate Editor
Anne Miller
Assistant Editors
Robert Hill
Tove Johnson
Susan Marcinkus
Distribution Research
Ronald P. Gold
Director of Distribution & Promotion
Mel Lawrence
Additional Cinematography
Hillary Harris
Louis Schwarzberg
MacGillivray-Freeman
Associate Cinematographer
Christine Gibson
Solo Organ
Michael Riesman
Vocals
Western Wind Ensemble
Albert Du Ruiter-Solo Bass
Tibetan Bells
Nancy Hennings
Henry Wolff
Hopi Prophecy Consultants
Thomas F. Tarbet
Dr. Ekkehart Malotki
Michael Lowatewama
James Kootshongsie
Dennis Kootshongsie
John Kimmey
Editing Consultant Dennis Jakob
Music Consultants
Marcia Mikulak
Walter Bachauer
Optical Consultant
Thomas Edmon
Dolby Consultant
David W. Gray
Title Design
Paul Pascarella
Linguistic Research on Title
Dr. Ekkehart Malotki
Michael Lowatewama
Optical Effects
Gamma Research
Titles & Optics
Pacific Title
Processing by
TVC Labs
Prints by
Deluxe
Timers
Bob Hagans
Matvey Shatz
Music Re-Recorded at Goldwyn Sound Facility
Inspiration & Ideas
Jacques Ellul
Ivan Illich
David Monongye
Guy DeBord
Leopold Kohr
Presented by Francis Ford Coppola
Definitions
ko.yaa.nis.katsi (from the Hopi language), n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
Translation of the Hopi Prophecies Sung in KOYAANISQATSI
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky which could burn the land and boil the oceans."
French
Ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (tiré de la langue Hopi), nom. l. vie folle. 2. vie tumultueuse. 3. vie se désagrégeant. 4. vie déséquilibrée. 5. un état d'existence qui exige un autre mode de vie.
Traduction des Prophéties Hopi chantées dans le film
"Si l'on extrait des choses précieuses de la terre, on invite le désastre."
"Près du Jour de Purification, il y aura des toiles d'araignées tissées d'un bout à l'autre du ciel."
"Un récipient de cendres pourrait un jour être lancé du ciel et il pourrait faire flamber la terre et bouillir les océans."
Spanish
ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (de la lengua Hopi), nombre. 1. vida loca. 2. vida en tumulto. 3. vida en desintegración. 4. vida desequilibrada. 5. una condición de vida que clama por otra manera de vivir.
Excavar riquezas de la tierra es cortejar al desastre
Al acercarse el dia de la Purificación, se tejerán telas de araña de un extremo al otro del cielo.
Podria ser que algun dia sea arrojado del cielo un receptáculo de cenizas que queme la tierra y evapore los oceanos.
Italian
ko.yaa.nis.gatsi (dall'originale in lingua Hopi), n. 1. vita folle. 2. vita tumultuosa. 3. vita in disintegrazione. 4. vita squilibrata. 5. condizione che richiede un altro stile di vita.
Traduzione delle Profezie Hopi cantate nel film
"Se scaviamo la terra in cerca di oggetti preziosi, provochiamo la calamita."
"Nel giorno della Purificazione, vi saranno ragnatele tessute ovunque nel cielo."
"E possibile che un giorno un recipiente di cenere sia scagliato dal cielo, che arda la terra e faccia ribollire gli oceani.
Portugese
Ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (da lííngua Hopi), n. 1. Vida louca. 2. Vida tumultuada. 3. Vida em desintegraççãão. 4. Vida desequilibrada. 5. Um estado de existêência que exige outro modo de viver.
AS PROFECIAS HOPI
Se escavarmos coisas preciosas da terra, Estaremos chamando o desastre.
Perto do dia da Purificaççãão, haveráá teias de aranha Prolongando-se de um lado para outro do cééu
Um recipiente de cinzas poderáá um dia Cair do cééu e poderáá queimar a terra E agitar os oceanos.
The Music
Orange Mountain Music release (2009)
Original music composed by Philip Glass
TRACKS:
Koyaanisqatsi
Organic
Clouds
Resource
Vessels
Pruitt Igoe
Pruitt Igoe Coda
Slo Mo People
The Grid - Introduction
The Grid
Microchip
Prophecies
Translations & Credits
Order the soundtrack from Amazon
Awards
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIER
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, SPECIAL EVENT, 20TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL (SRO)AUDIENCE CHOICE, BEST FIRST FEATURE
L.A. FILMEXBEST FILM, SAO PAULO FILM FESTIVAL
PRIX ITALIA, CONCORSO INTERNATIONALE PER OPERERADIOFONICHEE TELEVISIVE
SPECIAL EVENT, THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
CRITICS AWARD, LISBON FILM FESTIVAL
GRAND PRIZE, CRITICS PRIZE AND CITY OF MADRID AWARD, THE MADRID FILM FESTIVAL
SPECIAL EVENT, THE LEIPZIG FILM FESTIVAL
INTERNATIONAL FILM DIRECTORS SYMPOSIUM, BEIJING
WARSAW FILM WEEK
LIVE PERFORMANCE
SPECIAL INVITATION, MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER, EXHIBITED WITH FULL ORCHESTRA, AVERY FISHER HALL, TWO PERFORMANCES SRO.
LIVE PERFORMANCES IN US, SOUTH AMERICA AND EUROPE TO AN ESTIMATED 350,000 PERSONS
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
TIME MAGAZINE SELECTION AS ONE OF TEN BEST CLASSICAL RELEASES FOR THE YEAR
LOS ANGELES CRITICS AWARD, BEST SCORE FOR A MOTION PICTURE, 1983
NOMINEE - BEST SCORE, 1983 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
1985 VIRA AWARD, BEST DOCUMENTARY
ACCEPTED INTO THE PERMANENT COLLECTIONS OF THESE INSTITUTIONS
BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE
GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE
HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE
MUSÉE DU CINÉMA CINÉMATHÈQUE FRANÇAISE
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE
UCLA FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE
SPECIAL TELEVISION PRESENTATIONS - KOYAANISQATSI
GREAT PERFORMANCES, PBS (SECOND HIGHEST AUDIENCE OVERNIGHT RATING, 20 MILLION VIEWERS FOR THE SERIES)
FESTIVAL PRESENTATIONS
CARTAGENA FILM FESTIVAL
MOSCOW FILM FESTIVAL
BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
TAIPEI FILM FESTIVAL
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL
HONG KONG FILM FESTIVAL
HAVANA FILM FESTIVAL
SANTA FE FILM FESTIVAL
TEL AVIV ARTS FESTIVAL
SAO PAULO FILM FESTIVAL
LEIPZIG FILM FESTIVAL
BOMBAY FILM FESTIVAL
MADRID FILM FESTIVAL
BULGARIA FILM FESTIVAL
VANCOUVER FILM FESTIVAL
RIO DE JANEIRO FILM FESTIVAL
LOS ANGELES FILMEX
SEATTLE FILM FESTIVAL
GOTEBERG FESTIVAL
LISBON FILM FESTIVAL
ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL
HONOLULU FILM FESTIVAL
CLEVELAND FILM FESTIVAL
EUROPEAN ENVIRON, FESTIVAL
ARLES INTERNATIONAL
ASPEN DESIGN CONFERENCE
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT
LENINGRAD FILM FESTIVAL
IRAN FILM FESTIVAL
DAMASCUS FILM FESTIVAL
BEIJING FILM FESTIVAL
BELGRADE INT'L FILM FESTIVAL
NORTHERN FILM FESTIVAL, NETHERLANDS
THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTION/EXHIBITION
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TELEVISION
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Reviews
Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqatsi DVD review, Glenn Erikson, DVD Savant, dvdtalk.com
Koyaanisqatsi. Un nome impronunciavel para uma obra no minimo fascinante
DivirTa-Se O'Estado de S. Paulo - Sexta-feira
October 26, 1984
PDF
Das Leben - en Telespiel?
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
February 10, 1984
PDF
"Koyaanisqatsi" - Lebem aus dem Gleichgewicht
Lippische Landes-Zeitung
January 18, 1984
PDF
A new director finds 'magic' in film
Times-Picayune, New Orleans
January 6, 1984
PDF
Film says a mouthful with no words
The New American, Baltimore
December 12, 1983
PDF
Breathtaking Film offers unique music for the eyes
Milwaukee Sentinel
December 9, 1983
PDF
Dieu, que la planéte est belle
Le Nouvel Observateur (France)
August 1983
French with English Translation
PDF
Koyaanisqatsi: L'Amérique de long en large sous le choc des photos
Liberation • Jeudi
May 12, 1982
PDF
The Hollywood Reporter, Monday, October 18, 1982
Los Angeles Magazine, Koyaanisqatsi, Life out of Balance, April, 1983
New Statesman (UK), September 2, 1983
Life in Illusion, Life Out of Balance, Berlin, 1983
(Translated Excerpts of a Review by Michael Schwarze)
The Qatsi Trilogy
(Criterion Collection)
Click here to order from Amazon.com