Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance (1982)

5

KOYAANISQATSI, Reggio's debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the QATSI trilogy. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass.

KOYAANISQATSI attempts to reveal the beauty of the beast! We usually perceive our world, our way of living, as beautiful because there is nothing else to perceive. If one lives in this world, the globalized world of high technology, all one can see is one layer of commodity piled upon another. In our world the "original" is the proliferation of the standardized. Copies are copies of copies. There seems to be no ability to see beyond, to see that we have encased ourselves in an artificial environment that has remarkably replaced the original, nature itself. We do not live with nature any longer; we live above it, off of it as it were. Nature has become the resource to keep this artificial or new nature alive.

That being said, my intention in-other-words, let me describe the bigger picture. KOYAANISQATSI is not so much about something, nor does it have a specific meaning or value. KOYAANISQATSI is, after all, an animated object, an object in moving time, the meaning of which is up to the viewer. Art
has no intrinsic meaning. This is its power, its mystery, and hence, its attraction. Art is free. It stimulates the viewer to insert their own meaning, their own value.

So while I might have this or that intention in creating this film, I realize fully that any meaning or value KOYAANISQATSI might have comes exclusively from the beholder. The film's role is to provoke, to raise questions that only the audience can answer. This is the highest value of any work of art, not predetermined meaning, but meaning gleaned from the experience of the encounter. The encounter is my interest, not the meaning. If meaning is the point, then propaganda and advertising is the form. So in the sense of art, the meaning of KOYAANISQATSI is whatever you wish to make of it.

This is its power.

 

Note to non-US viewers: you can still watch this video using Security Kiss.

Just download and run their free software . Make sure to tick the U.S server and you are good to watch Hulu and other videos on our site you couldn't watch before.
http://www.securitykiss.com/

video.google.com
Trending Videos
Gaza Fights For Freedom | Directed by Abby Martin (2019)
84 min - This debut feature film by journalist Abby Martin began while reporting in Palestine, where she was denied entry into Gaza by the Israeli government on the accusation she was a “propagandist.” So...
I've Never Seen the Israel / Palestine Conflict Illustrated More Uniquely Than This
3 min - The story shared by Israel and Palestine has been told in several stunning films, but I don't think I've ever seen it told like this. Nina Paley created this (extremely brief) animated history of...
Harambe (2023) ($5)
72 min - Harambe’s death shattered the illusion of safety within the walls of captivity. After a toddler fell into his enclosure 7 years ago, through no fault of his own, Harambe was met with a single shot...
Sicko (2007)
123 min - The words "health care" and "comedy" aren't usually found in the same sentence, but in Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore's new movie 'SiCKO,' they go together hand in (rubber)...
Climate Change Documentaries
Films That Inspire Inner Change
More Free Documentaries
*Recommended*

Donate to Support Films For Action 

For $5 a month, you'll gain access to over 50 of our favorite world-changing documentaries while keeping us ad-free and financially independent.

Subscribe here | Explore the films

Your support helps grow our 5000+ video library, which is 99% free thanks to our patrons!

 

We're a People-Powered Library 

Sign up to add a documentary or video to our library and we'll help promote it. Half of our best content was added by members. Submissions just need to be embeddable (like from Youtube or Vimeo), and related to changing the world. 

We'd love you to become a regular contributor! Cheers,
The Films For Action team