Editorial Review
Koyaanisqatsi First-time filmmaker Godfrey Reggio's experimental documentary from 1983--shot mostly in the desert Southwest and New York City on a tiny budget with no script, then attracting the support of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas and enlisting the indispensable musical contribution of Philip Glass--delighted college students on the midnight circuit and fans of minimalism for many years. Meanwhile, its techniques, merging cinematographer Ron Fricke's time-lapse shots (alternately peripatetic and hyperspeed) with Glass's reiterative music (from the meditative to the orgiastic)--as well as its ecology-minded imagery--crept into the consciousness of popular culture. The influence of
Koyaanisqatsi, or "life out of balance," has by now become unmistakable in television advertisements, music videos, and, of course, similar movies such as Fricke's own
Chronos and Craig McCourry's
Apogee. Reggio shot a sequel,
Powaqqatsi (1988), and completed the trilogy with
Naqoyqatsi (2002).
Koyaanisqatsi provides the uninitiated the chance to see where it all started--along with an intense audiovisual rush.
Powaqqatsi
Powaqqatsi (1988), or "life in transformation," is the second part of a trilogy of experimental documentaries whose titles derive from Hopi compound nouns. The now legendary Koyaanisqatsi (1983), or "life out of balance," was the first. Naqoyqatsi (2002), or "life in war," was the third. Powaqqatsi finds director Godfrey Reggio somewhat more directly polemical than before, and his major collaborator, the composer Philip Glass, stretching to embrace world music. Reggio reuses techniques familiar from the previous film (slow motion, time-lapse, superposition) to dramatize the effects of the so-called First World on the Third: displacement, pollution, alienation. But he spends as much time beautifully depicting what various cultures have lost--cooperative living, a sense of joy in labor, and religious values--as he does confronting viewers with trains, airliners, coal cars, and loneliness. What had been a more or less peaceful, slow-moving, spiritually fulfilling rural existence for these "silent" people (all we hear is music and sound effects) becomes a crowded, suffocating, accelerating industrial urban hell, from Peru to Pakistan. Reggio frames Powaqqatsi with a telling image: the Serra Pelada gold mines, where thousands of men, their clothes and skin imbued with the earth they're moving, carry wet bags up steep slopes in a Sisyphean effort to provide wealth for their employers. While Glass juxtaposes his strangely joyful music, which includes the voices of South American children, a number of these men carry one of their exhausted comrades out of the pit, his head back and arms outstretched--one more sacrifice to Caesar. Nevertheless, Reggio, a former member of the Christian Brothers, seems to maintain hope for renewal. --Robert Burns Neveldine
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Customer Reviews
Jumping a barrier... 
2007-09-09
...
These movies don't even come close to 'Baraka'. The images are of less quality and do not draw you in. The 'background music' has become a barrier between the images you see and the feelings they could have created. Instead of showing the images with the natural sounds that go with them, there's a feeling of disconnect as the eyes see one thing, but the ears hear other, unrelated, audio 'clues'.
Even though the director is Francis Ford Coppola, do not be fooled in expecting high quality. There is a strong impression he made the movie during his lunch hour while concentrating on another film.
Both movies suffer from the same visual/audio disconnect. If you want to spent the same amount of money in this category, but two 'Baraka' movies and give one to a dear friend.
things fall apart 
2007-08-28
these movies, albeit a bit dated, and i wish they were in HD... give a wonderful view of modern life, falling apart, and racing by.
Great Deal! 
2007-05-12
What a deal this was! I bought both DVDs at a low price from Amazon, and realized after watching them that is was well worth the money. The movies are really in depth, and though my TV is not an IMAX it does give that illusion. Really trippy imagry, and factual acts of life give these two movies a high rating in my book.
Coherency 2007-05-07
The theme suggested by Koyaanisqatsi is remarkably visible in the stream of imagery, making the documentary commenatary very informative and suggestive. Koyaanisqatsi held my attention, and presented itself not only as a work of art, but also as an informing work of art. Powaqqatsi did not appear so readily accessible in a thematic way. I found the imagery, though provoking and immediate, to be an unfocused narrative. What is the message? The title suggests a theme, but the train of images fails to synthesize a statement initiated in the title. Of course life is in transition. How does that interest me? As a single viewer, I wasn't as interested in the Powaqqatsi video as I was in the Koyaanisqatsi imagery. Creatures of the world, including humans, are parasitic? Perhaps the videographers should have included some vegetarian "fare" (offering a solution to our animal natures). Finally, Phillip Glass's stimulating soundscapes, poignant and haunting, make both documentaries worth the bother.
not as good as Baraka 2007-01-30
Koyaanisqatsi WAS a great, unique piece of cinema, but does look visually and socially a little dated these days. The Phillip Glass soundtrack works beautifully with the time lapse scenes but after a while begins to grate...
Powaqatsi is based much more on the ryhthms of life and work in the developing world, but as opposed to Koyaanisqatsi's hectic time-lapse, it's so slow-mo and meditative that some viewers may find it the perfect thing to fall asleep too. Godfrey Reggio's original vision seems to have been a fluke - Cinematographer Ron Fricke made Koyaanisqatsi as good as it was, but upon seeing how depressing it was, he then made Baraka to improve on it. The third instalment in the series, Naqyqatsi, is best avoided or borrowed from the video library and watched on fast forward.
koyannisqatsi - chaotic life 2008-04-05
koyaanisqatsi/powaqqatsi - powerful film portrayal of mankind's development on planet earth. Possible demise of it. Only commercial film w/no audio script. No need for it as the imagery allows viewer to put their own needed meaning and outcome. Showing the evolutionary process of life and technology, warfare, etc. possible self-destruction of life itself if not resources needed to support itself.
Awsome 2008-01-20
Get these movies and Baraka for a new film experience. These will you have you talking about all sorts of topics that you never thought of. I let these movies play in the background of parties and everyone has to ask about them. I am glad I stumbled upon these.
Thought provoking Journey 2007-11-05
These follow up's Baraka for example are excellent viewing. Sometime we forget how fortunate we truly are.
terrific dvd 2007-10-18
Koyaanisqatsi is what I would call an "architectural" movie (actually it is more of an artful documentary than a 'movie'): Well-designed images of our world, and society's impact on the natural environment. People and cars date the movie a bit, but in general, it is a timeless work of art.
Koyaanisqatsi/Powaaqqatsi - cd 2pack 2007-10-10
Excellent films, great music. Provocative.
They (with the third, yet unavailable 3rd
piece of the Qatsi trilogy, aid in understanding
our impact on and separation from the natural
world. No story, no dialogue just visuals and
music. The Glass's music has great impact
