Koyaanisqatsi
1983
Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi shuttles viewers from one jaw-dropping vision to the next, moving from images of untouched nature to others depicting human beings’ increasing dependence on technology.
Box Set Info
- Spine #639
A singular artist and activist, Godfrey Reggio is best known for the galvanizing films of The Qatsi Trilogy. Astonishingly photographed, and featuring unforgettable, cascading scores by Philip Glass, these are immersive sensory experiences that meditate on the havoc humankind’s obsession with technological advancement has wreaked on our world. From 1983’s Koyaanisqatsi to 1988’s Powaqqatsi to 2002’s Naqoyqatsi, Reggio takes us on a journey from the ancient to the contemporary, from nature to industry, exploring life out of balance, in transformation, and as war, all the while keeping our eyes wide with wonder.
Collector’s Set Includes
Powaqqatsi
1988
Five years after Godfrey Reggio stunned audiences with Koyaanisqatsi, he again joined forces with composer Philip Glass and other collaborators for a second chapter. Here, Reggio turns his sights on third-world nations in the Southern Hemisphere.
Naqoyqatsi
2002
Through a variety of cinematic techniques, including slow motion, time-lapse, computer- generated imagery, and found footage, the film tells of a world that has completed the transition from the natural to the artificial.
Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
- New, restored digital transfers of all three films, approved by director Godfrey Reggio
- Essence of Life, an interview program with Reggio and composer Philip Glass on Koyaanisqatsi
- New interview with cinematographer Ron Fricke about Koyaanisqatsi
- Television spots and a new interview with Reggio relating to his 1970s multimedia privacy campaign in New Mexico
- Early forty-minute demo version of Koyaanisqatsi with a partial scratch soundtrack featuring poet Allen Ginsberg, along with a new introduction by Reggio
- New interview with Reggio about Koyaanisqatsi’s original visual concept, with behind-the-scenes footage
- Impact of Progress, an interview program with Reggio and Glass on their collaboration
- Inspiration and Ideas, a new interview with Reggio about his greatest influences and teachers
- Public television interview with Reggio from 1989 about the trilogy
- Anima Mundi (1992), Reggio’s twenty-eight-minute montage of footage of over seventy animal species, scored by Glass
- New video afterword by Reggio on the trilogy
- The Making of “Naqoyqatsi,” a brief documentary featuring interviews with the production crew
- Panel discussion on Naqoyqatsi from
2003, with Reggio, Glass, editor Jon Kane, and music critic John Rockwell - Interview with Glass and cellist Yo-Yo Ma
- Trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film scholar Scott MacDonald, Rockwell, and author and environmentalist Bill McKibben
