Koyaanisqatsi (English pronunciation: /ˈkɔɪ.

ɑːnɪsˈkɑːtsiː/ KOY-ah-nis-KAHT-see), also known as

Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music
composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.

The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many
natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a
vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. Reggio explains the
lack of dialog by stating "it's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words.
It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer
describes the world in which we live."[6] In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means
"crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for
another way of living".[7] The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed by
Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the
relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Koyaanisqatsi is the best known of the
trilogy and is considered a cult film. However, because of copyright issues, the film was out of
print for most of the 1990s.[8]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Sequences
• 2 Music
• 3 Meaning
• 4 Releases
• 5 Reception
• 6 Influence
• 7 See also
• 8 References

• 9 External links

[edit] Sequences
The film contains several cinematic sequences accompanied by recurring musical themes. The
chapters on the Koyaanisqatsi DVD are separated and named by the titles of the musical
sections. The first image in the film is of a Fremont pictogram located in The Great Gallery of
Horseshoe Canyon, part of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The section shown depicts several
tall darkly-shadowed figures standing near a taller figure adorned with a crown. The next image
is a close-up of the Saturn V rocket from the Apollo 12[citation needed] mission during liftoff. The film
fades into a shot of a desolate desert landscape ("Organic"). The large skylight arch depicted a
few scenes later is a formation called Paul Bunyan's Potty in the Needles District of
Canyonlands. From there, it progresses to footage of various natural environmental phenomena
such as waves and clouds.
The film's introduction to human involvement in the environment is a low aerial shot of choppy
water, cutting to a similar shot of rows of cultivated flowers. After aerial views of monumental
rock formations partly drowned by the backed up waters of Lake Powell, we see a large mining
truck causing billows of black dust in the chapter titled "Resource". This is followed by shots of
power lines in the desert. Man's continued involvement in the environment is depicted through
images of mining operations, oil fields, overhead shots of the Navajo Generating Station power
plant, Glen Canyon Dam, and stock footage of atomic bomb detonations in the Nevada desert.
Following the atomic bomb detonations, the sequence entitled "Vessels" begins with a shot of
sunbathers on a beach, then pans to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, showing how
oblivious the sunbathers are to being so close to the same power as the atomic bombs. "Vessels"
contains the film's longest single take: a three minute and thirty-two second long shot of two
United Airlines commercial passenger Boeing 747s taxiing on a runway. "Vessels" also contains
shots of traffic patterns during rush hour on a Los Angeles freeway and a shot of a large parking
lot. This is followed with stock footage of Soviet tanks lined up in rows and a B-1 Lancer
military aircraft, and a shot of sailors on the USS Enterprise in formation on deck to spell out the
equation E = mc2.

The juxtaposition of humans and nature is seen again in the chapter "Cloudscape". The time-
lapse photography of shadows of clouds are seen moving across the skyscrapers in New York
City. The sequence "Pruit-Igoe" contains shots of various housing projects in disrepair, and
includes footage of the decay and demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project. The housing
project was known for its modernist design, but fell into immediate disrepair. The sequence ends
with stock footage of the destruction of large buildings. A sequence known as "Slow People"
begins with a time-lapse shot of a crowd of people who appear to be waiting in a line. This is
followed by shots of people walking along the streets of New York City shot with slow motion
photography.

"The Grid" is the film's longest sequence, roughly 21 minutes in length. The cinematic theme of
this sequence is the speed of modern life. The sequence begins with shots of buildings and a shot
of a sunset reflected in the glass of a skyscraper. The sequence uses time-lapse photography of
the activity of modern life, taking events typically shot at normal speed and accelerating them.
The events captured in this sequence involve people interacting with modern technology. The
first shots are traffic patterns as seen from skyscrapers at night. This is followed by the film's
iconic shot of the moon passing behind a skyscraper. The next shots are closer shots of cars on a
highway. The sun rises over the city and we see people hurrying to work. The film shows at
regular speed the operation of machines packaging Oscar Mayer bologna. People are shown
sorting mail, sewing jeans, manufacturing televisions and doing other jobs with the use of
modern technology. A shot of hot dogs being sent down rows of conveyers is followed by a shot
of people moving up escalators. The frenetic speed and pace of the cuts and background music
do not slow as shots of modern leisure are shown. People eat, play, shop and work at the same
speed. The sequence begins to come full circle as the manufacturing of automobiles in an
assembly line factory is shown.

More shots of highway traffic are shown, this time in daylight. The film shows the movement of
cars, shopping carts, Twinkies, and televisions on an assembly line, and elevators moving from
first person perspective. These shots include cars along the Embarcadero Freeway in San
Francisco (later demolished due to damage from the 1989 earthquake), and people on escalators
in New York's Grand Central Terminal and a BART station[9]. The film then shows clips from
various television shows being channel surfed in fast motion. Clips include a car crash,
newscasts moving so fast that the anchors' faces are blurred (a very young Lou Dobbs reporting
on the middle east is briefly visible) football games, and flashes of television advertisements.
The film, in slow motion, then shows several people reacting to being candidly filmed on the
street. The people are all obviously aware of the presence of the camera and have differing
reactions. The camera stays on them until the moment when they acknowledge its presence by
looking directly at it. The sequence then shows cars moving much faster than they were moving
before. Both the sequence and the music end without resolution, either cinematic or musical.

"Microchips", scored with edgy, sharp musical tones, juxtaposes pictures of microchips and
satellite photography of metropolitan cities, making a comparison between their layouts.
"Prophecies" shows various shots of people from all walks of modern life, from beggars to
debutantes. A scene of firefighters in a smoky street was shot during the aftermath of riots
following the New York City blackout of 1977. "Ending" shows stock footage of a rocket lifting
off and then exploding. (The film is actually two separate events — the first moments of the
launch is a Saturn V rocket, while the rocket shown clearing the tower and later exploding is the
first Atlas-Centaur, which was launched on May 8, 1962). The footage follows a flaming rocket
engine as it plummets to earth. The film comes full circle with a shot of a different portion of
The Great Gallery pictograph. It is similar to the first shot, but with no darkly shadowed figures.

[edit] Music
Koyaanisqatsi

Soundtrack by Philip Glass

Released 1983

Soundtrack, film score, contemporary classical,

Genre
Minimalism

Length 46:25

Label Antilles/Island
Producer Kurt Munkacsi & Philip Glass

Professional reviews

• Allmusic link

• Rolling Stone 1983-12-08

Philip Glass chronology

Glassworks Koyaanisqatsi The Photographer

(1982) (1983) (1983)

Koyaanisqatsi (1998 re-recording)

The opening for "The Grid" is characterized by slow sustained notes on brass instruments. The
music builds in speed and dynamics throughout the piece's 21 minutes. When the piece is at its
fastest, it is characterized by a synthesizer playing the piece's bass line ostinato.

The film's soundtrack by Glass was released in 1983, after the release of the film. Even though
the amount of music in the film was almost as long as the film itself, the soundtrack release was
only 46 minutes long and featured only selections from the film's pieces. In 1998, Glass re-
recorded the album through Nonesuch Records with a length of 73 minutes, 21 seconds. The re-
recording of the album featured two additional tracks from the film, as well as extended versions
of previous tracks from the original album. The album was released as a Philip Glass album
titled Koyaanisqatsi, rather than a soundtrack to the film. The music has become so popular that
the Philip Glass Ensemble has toured the world, playing the music for Koyaanisqatsi live in front
of the movie screen.

The complete original soundtrack recording was released on CD in 2009 on Glass's own label
Orange Mountain Music.[10]

Track listing: Original soundtrack track listing (2009):

Length (46:25) Length (76:21)

1. "Koyaanisqatsi" – 3:30 1. "Koyaanisqatsi" – 3:27

2. "Vessels" – 8:06 2. "Organic" – 4:57
3. "Cloudscape" – 4:39 3. "Clouds" – 4:38
4. "Pruit Igoe" [sic] – 7:04 4. "Resource" – 6:36
5. "The Grid" – 14:56 5. "Vessels" – 8:13
6. "Prophecies" – 8:10 6. "Pruitt Igoe" – 7:51
7. "Pruitt Igoe Coda" – 1:17
Re-recording track listing (1998): 8. "Slo Mo People" – 3:20
9. "The Grid – Introduction" – 3:24
Length (73:21) 10. "The Grid" – 18:06
11. "Microchip" – 1:47
1. "Koyaanisqatsi" – 3:28 12. "Prophecies" – 10:34
2. "Organic" – 7:43
3. "Cloudscape" – 4:34 13. "Translations & Credits" – 2:11
4. "Resource" – 6:39
5. "Vessels" – 8:05
6. "Pruit Igoe" [sic] – 7:53
7. "The Grid" – 21:23

8. "Prophecies" – 13:36

[edit] Meaning
Reggio stated that the Qatsi films are intended to simply create an experience and that "it is up
[to] the viewer to take for himself/herself what it is that [the film] means." He also said that
"these films have never been about the effect of technology, of industry on people. It's been that
everyone: politics, education, things of the financial structure, the nation state structure,
language, the culture, religion, all of that exists within the host of technology. So it's not the
effect of, it's that everything exists within [technology]. It's not that we use technology, we live
technology. Technology has become as ubiquitous as the air we breathe..."[6]

The movie has no dialogue but does feature the Hopi word koyaanisqatsi, translated as "life of
moral corruption and turmoil" or "life out of balance," or "a state of life that calls for another
way of living."[11] "Koyaanisqatsi" is chanted at the beginning and end of the film in a dark,
sepulchral basso profundo by singer Albert de Ruiter over the score by Philip Glass. Three Hopi
prophecies are sung by a choral ensemble during the latter part of the "Prophecies" movement
are translated just prior to the end credits:

• "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."
The film took about six years to make. Three years were spent shooting the film. Glass and
Reggio spent an additional three years in a state of collaboration, with Glass composing score to
fit the film and Reggio re-cutting the footage to fit the score.

At the end of the film, the movie credits for inspiration Jacques Ellul, Ivan Illich, David
Monongye, Guy Debord and Leopold Kohr. Moreover, amongst the consultants to the director
we can find names as Jeffrey Lew, T.A. Price, Belle Carpenter, Langdon Winner, Cybelle
Carpenter and Barbara Pecarich.

[edit] Releases
Koyaanisqatsi was produced by American Zoetrope.[12] Out of print for over a decade,
Koyaanisqatsi was re-released on DVD in late 2002. Much of the reason for the film's
disappearance from the market centered around a complicated rights and royalties dispute.
Reggio's Institute for Regional Education owns the original copyright on the film. The film had
originally been licensed and distributed through Island Entertainment/Palm Pictures, which had
subsequently been sold to PolyGram - and after the dissolution of PolyGram Pictures, the entire
PolyGram film library had been sold to Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. As there had been many
accounting departments for these several entities involved, calculations and payments of
royalties to the film makers had not been made. IRE brought suit and released an independently-
financed DVD production of the film to raise money for the legal costs which sold for a $180
donation. This DVD is in an open matte full-frame 4:3 format. MGM and IRE reached an
agreement allowing for the current mass-market version through MGM, which has been released
in a masked 16:9 widescreen format. Koyaanisqatsi was one of an initial seven films MGM
released to YouTube viewers.

[edit] Reception
The film won the "Francis Ford Coppola Presents" endorsement at the 1982 New York Film
Festival, and Coppola is now credited as an executive producer. In an interview, Godfrey Reggio
says "...[Coppola] would like to do everything possible to make this available to the public, so he
put his name on it".[13] In 2000, Koyaanisqatsi was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant".

Koyaanisqatsi is followed by the sequels Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi and the shorts Anima
Mundi and Evidence. Naqoyqatsi was completed after a lengthy delay caused by funding
problems and premiered in the United States on October 18, 2002. The film's cinematographer,
Ron Fricke, went on to direct Baraka, a pure cinema movie which is often compared to
Koyaanisqatsi.

[edit]