Godfrey Reggio's 'Qatsi' Trilogy Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

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Godfrey Reggio's 'Qatsi' Trilogy

Synopses            These three films are each visual tone poems, with neither dialogue nor narration. The visuals are primarily slow motion and time-lapse photography of industrial and natural landscapes across the United States and around the world. The narrative tension is produced by the juxtaposition of images and music.
           "Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance" [1983] displays images of nature - desolate canyonlands in Utah, water, flowers, pictographs - and Man's presence - rockets into space, mining trucks, atomic weapons testing, rush hour freeway traffic, and assembly line machinery. The chapter titles are "Organic", "Resource", "Vessels", "Cloudscape", "Pruitt-Igoe"
(the name of a derelict housing project), "The Grid", "Microchips", "Prophecies", and "Ending". The film runs 87 minutes.
           "Powaqqatsi: Life In Transformation" [1988] focuses on the conflict between traditional ways of life and industrialization. The chapter titles are "Serra Pelada" (a gold mine in Brazil), "Anthem: Part 1", "That Place", "Anthem: Part 2", and "Mosque and Temple". The film runs 99 minutes.
           "Naqoyqatsi: Life Is War" [2002] was created using a process named 'virtual cinema', starting with mostly archive footage and stock images and manipulating them digitally on non-linear editing workstations, intercut with specially-produced C.G.I. elements. The film runs 89 minutes.

The "Qatsi Trilogy" [1983-2002] is its own genre; Godfrey Reggio has made only one movie since - "Visitors" [2014] - so we have included here
recent works of the same type by other participants in the original trilogy and their successors.

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"Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance"
[IRE/New Cinema 1983]

Co-written & directed by Godfrey Reggio; co-written by Michael
Hoenig, Ron Fricke & Alton Walpole; music by Philip Glass &
Michael Hoenig; listed in National Film Registry 2000
MGM/UA widescreen DVD [9/2002] for $17.38
color VHS [2000] out of prodn/used
color VHS [1999] out of prodn/used
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Koyaanisqatsi" [1983] / "Powaqqatsi" [1988] DVD 2-pack
Co-written & directed by Godfrey Reggio; music by Philip Glass
MGM/UA widescreen DVD [9/2002] 2 disks for $22.49

"The Qatsi Trilogy" [2012]
All three films are newly-restored high-definition digital transfers; extras include: early 40-minute demo version of Koyaanisqatsi with soundtrack by poet Allen Ginsberg; "Anima Mundi" [1992], Reggio’s 28-minute montage of images of over seventy animal species, scored by Glass; interview program "Essence of Life" with Reggio & Glass; interview program "Impact of Progress" with Reggio and Glass; interview "Music of Naqoyqatsi” with Glass and cellist Yo-Yo Ma; interview with Reggio about his greatest influences and teachers; new interview with cinematographer Ron Fricke; new interview with Reggio about Koyaanisqatsi’s original visual concept; panel discussion on Naqoyqatsi from 2003, with Reggio, Glass, editor Jon Kane, and music critic John Rockwell; several trailers; and a booklet featuring essays by film scholar Scott MacDonald, music critic John Rockwell, and eco-activist Bill McKibben
Criterion Collection widescreen color Special Edition Blu-ray [12/2012] 3 disks for $39.99
Criterion Collection widescreen color DVD [12/2012] 3 disks for $39.99

"Visitors" [Cinedigm Ent. Jan 2014]

87-minute documentary that 'reveals humanity's trance-like relationship with technology, which, when commandeered by extreme emotional states, produces massive effects far beyond the human species'
Co-produced, written & directed by Godfrey Reggio; music by Philip Glass
New Video Group widescreen b&w Blu-ray [6/2014] for $22.99
New Video Group widescreen b&w DVD [6/2014] for $19.99
credits at IMDb • official movie website is infected (12/2017)

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Other Principals

cinematographer Ron Fricke
Co-wrote, filmed, and co-edited the Koyaanisqatsi movie, went on to specialize in other large-format and time-lapse projects.
official website • IMDb listing • Wikipedia

composer Michael Stearns
abstract musician and composer, wrote scores for "Chronos", "Baraka" & "Samsara" for Fricke
official website • IMDb listing • Wikipedia

Online sales in association with

	"Koyaanisqatsi" soundtrack album [1995] Nonesuch soundtrack CD [10/98] for $14.99 Island UK soundtrack CD [4/95] out of prodn/many used Elektra/Asylum audio DVD [8/2001] out of prodn/used
	"Powaqqatsi" soundtrack album [1990] Nonesuch soundtrack CD [10/90] for $18.98
	"Naqoyqatsi" soundtrack album [2002] composed by Philip Glass, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma Sony soundtrack CD [10/2002] for $13.98 Phantom Sound & Vision import soundtrack CD [7/2008] for $19.98

Magic Lantern Video & Book StoreGodfrey Reggio's 'Qatsi' Trilogy

Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
Godfrey Reggio's 'Qatsi' Trilogy