Godfrey Reggio’s “Qatsi” trilogy of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi are artistic representations and discussions of human life in its many forms. Qatsi is taken from the Hopi word for life and the translations of the titles, as used by Reggio, are “Life Out Of Balance,” “Sorcerer Life” and “Life as War,” respectively. These titles provide some platform on which to examine the plotless films.
Reggio has stated outright that the films were made “not so much about something” nor with “a specific meaning or value,” and that their power comes from making the audience ask their own questions and have their own experience rather than simply dictating one to them. However, these films are absolutely not without intentionality. The brilliant image selection and intense cinematography, in conjunction with Phillip Glass’s incredibly abstract scores, makes each film a deeply powerful event, making it impossible for one who views it seriously to not be moved.
Koyaanisqatsi, the first and most well-known of the films, is deeply environmental in tone and exhibits mankind’s distance from environmental equilibrium. The opening sequence of a rocket during takeoff, with a chorus repeating “Koyaanisqatsi” over a dark organ progression, immediately imbues the viewer with an eerie feeling, a vibe which the music continues when Reggio next moves to the deserts of the southwest. His images of mining operations, atomic bomb blasts and other interruptions of nature, such as oil fields and dams, are followed by images of human society, then interruptions to that with powerful images such as the destruction of a housing project and time-lapse shots of massive crowds moving through streets. Reggio jumps between images displaying the artificial and the natural world, contrasting nature and society while showing the dissonance that mankind brings to all that we interact with.
Powaqqatsi, or “Sorcerer Life” brings the focus away from the mass interruptions that technologically evolved societies are capable of and instead examines countries in the developing world and highlights the evolution of society and its interactions with the environment as the society grows. The film begins displaying smaller cultures and smaller scale interaction with their surrounding environments and people are shown in a very primitive light, only carrying things with their hands or on their heads. The evolution of technology and tools then builds, first with a pottery wheel, followed by metal knives and machetes eventually concluding with a society much like our own. The film also makes a point of displaying the difference sizes and densities of societies using aerial perspectives. The societies begin nearly one with nature and move to a point where nature is so distant from every day life that society itself was not derivative from it. Earlier shots in the film display nature in an overwhelming light, displaying the immensity of mountain ranges, bodies of water and other geographic elements, while the end of the film shows the pure awesomeness of society with shots of enormous crowds of people in the cities of the same developing countries.
Naqoyqatsi, “Life as War,” is the most difficult of the trilogy, focusing on societal pressure, artificiality and mankind’s new existence in a technological culture rather than a naturalistic one. The film works off the idea that technology is the new nature, with Reggio calling technology the “big force” and like oxygen, for “it is always there, a necessity that we cannot live without.” Naqoyqatsi shows man’s development of language and through it false reality with money, a purely man made idea, becoming the most central part of life in society. The film draws to a close on a word filled with madness and “civilized violence,” the film’s interpretation of the Naqoyqatsi. While the first films create their scenes with intense time lapse and slow motion shots focusing primarily on man and environment, Naqoyqatsi uses an erratic blend of images from modern society, weaving them together in a non-linear way that produces an intensely disgusting view of the modern world. Where in Powaqqatsi nature is falling out of human society, in Naqoyqatsi, nature is gone, playing no roll but to be harvest by man simply to maintain the gross existence that our conquest for money and an endless appetite to consume. Of the three, while Koyaanisqatsi was likely the most enjoyable, Naqoyqatsi was the most powerful, with an air of dystopianism reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange.
Environmentalism is undoubtedly one of the core ideas behind the Qatsi trilogy with each film displaying mans different interactions with the environment. While Koyaanisqatsi’s shots of the seemingly endless deserts of the South West may display some artifacts of our old nature, Naqoyqatsi all but dispels that hope. The larger concept of society consuming and exhausting nature may be most prominent in the developing world of Powaqqatsi, however without Koyaanisqatsi’s look at the capabilities of man and the futuristic result of the development the study would not be complete. Each film can of course function on its own but the experiences of seeing them are far stronger as a collective work than by themselves.
When seen after understanding the concepts of this class and the questions to be considered such as how much is too much and what are the values of the environment and environmental sustainability, the Qatsi trilogy provides a wealth of images extremely suitable as a backdrop to try to help one come to their own conclusions. The trilogy fails slightly however in that the sense of overwhelming doom, particularly in Naqoyqatsi, leaves the viewer with a slighted towards simply accepting this warped, culture. Like the beginning of the semester when lessons focused on all of the damage being done without any solutions, the Qatsi trilogy pounds out a dark future for our planet and for mankind. However while the semester developed in an arc, where solutions are raised and addressed, the trilogy stops short before giving any sign of hope, conversely ending far darker than it came in. Although Reggio’s intention was to simply create an intense experience to which one draws their own message, the experience seems somewhat incomplete even if that is exactly what he wanted. Never the less they are profoundly successful in creating an experience the viewer can draw much from. The Qatsi trilogy is an incredible collection of images, sounds and ideas each with a powerful intrinsic greatness that when brought together creates a truly extraordinary experience, with the same being said for the films themselves and as parts of a collection.
