It is a Simple Work, Made Entirely of Music and Images
May 4, 2023 2:20 AM Subscribe
40 Years of KOYAANISQATSI
How Philip Glass made the city speak in 'Koyaanisqatsi'
'Koyaanisqatsi' Still Embodies the Wonder and Dread of Human Progress
Ways Of Seeing: Koyaanisqatsi At 40
Koyaanisqatsi best scene
Koyaanisqatsi - Ending scene
Bonus: Simpsons - Koyaanisqatsi Spoof
Bonus: gifaanisqatsi [previously]
more previously
How Philip Glass made the city speak in 'Koyaanisqatsi'
'Koyaanisqatsi' Still Embodies the Wonder and Dread of Human Progress
Ways Of Seeing: Koyaanisqatsi At 40
Koyaanisqatsi best scene
Koyaanisqatsi - Ending scene
Bonus: Simpsons - Koyaanisqatsi Spoof
Bonus: gifaanisqatsi [previously]
more previously
Koyaanisqatsi and its Complex Legacy -Brows Held High
Come for the shots from West Side Story and Modern Times, stay for "The End Of History."
posted by dannyboybell at 5:11 AM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Come for the shots from West Side Story and Modern Times, stay for "The End Of History."
posted by dannyboybell at 5:11 AM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I saw it for the first time a few years ago with live music. I'd always thought it was one of those things I ought to do, like reading Middlemarch (which I have yet to complete). So glad to be wrong about that! It was incredible. I look forward to watching it again the next time it comes to town.
posted by pangolin party at 5:32 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by pangolin party at 5:32 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've loved this movie for almost all of the 40 years mentioned here (I saw it in a second-run movie house in the 1980s and I bought it on DVD). Thank you for this post.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 6:33 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 6:33 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
To this day one of my favorite things to do when I go to midtown is to put on my headphones, cue up The Grid, and walk around as fast as I can
posted by phooky at 7:24 AM on May 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by phooky at 7:24 AM on May 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
(I also saw this live at Lincoln Center about a decade ago, and my favorite part was watching the audience stream down the escalators after the show, each face illuminated by their smartphones in the dim light. It would be trivial to update this with modern footage.)
posted by phooky at 7:37 AM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by phooky at 7:37 AM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
aaaaagghhh the old guy with the disposable razor just shaving his face on the street, obliviously shedding dander and hair bits all over his suit, like dude, come the fuck on
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:03 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:03 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
My 5th grade teacher (circa 1994-95) was obsessed with this in a way I still find strange. He was also the school music teacher and so had a lot of leeway to play music for us that was somehow OK despite the fact that he taught at a small private Christian school in the middle of the woods. He went so far as to arrange for us to watch the film at the house of a fellow student whose parents had a surround sound system. All 30 (?) of us squished into Adam’s living room with a circulating bowl of microwave popcorn; a good number of us sitting on the floor. I remember being vaguely baffled by the whole thing but I do remember the repetitive scenes of people on escalators. It seemed to be about the futility of capitalism? We must have had a discussion afterwards but that memory is lost to time. I have not watched it since.
This teacher also introduced us to Queen, John Wyndham, Lloyd Alexander and the idea that food fights should be reserved for college and not our elementary school classroom.
posted by janepanic at 8:26 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
This teacher also introduced us to Queen, John Wyndham, Lloyd Alexander and the idea that food fights should be reserved for college and not our elementary school classroom.
posted by janepanic at 8:26 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Fond memories of watching this repeatedly in early college.
posted by joeyverge at 8:39 AM on May 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by joeyverge at 8:39 AM on May 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've seen the two sequels (Naqoyqatsi on the big screen, even!), but not the one that started it all. Really should do something about that.
posted by May Kasahara at 8:54 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by May Kasahara at 8:54 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
more previously
searching through the options got me to Godfrey Reggio's wiki. Not your average artist, filmmaker, anything ...
From a soulful beginning in the Church at the age of 14, Reggio passed the ensuing twenty-two years in fasting, long periods of meditative silence, of prayer, vows of life-long poverty, and in choosing to be a monk-friar. It was this ascetic traditional Roman Catholic pontifical teaching Order which ultimately assigned him to the province of Santa Fe, [...]. Witnessing himself in the secular world as a young intellectually zealous monk schooled in the theology of the Medieval Era, he accepted nothing, questioned everything, even eventually to the structure of the Church.
And ..
Reggio’s view of cinematic streaming, beyond the idea of theatre, is not that it shapes our point of view, not how it affects politics, not how it affects religion, or the economy, it is that now so much of everything we learn is situated within its technology. Streaming technology is now part of social media and is thus the new host of a reified visual life. In that sense, Reggio insists, imaging technology is not something we use, it is something we breathe, it is in fact our new mental habitat. We keep pretending as if we can use such technology for good or ill. That is somewhat fanciful since technology has its own autonomy, out of our control, its own politics, its own determination, and its own destiny.
[...]
To support living in a technological version of euphoria our life has become predicated in speed, faster and faster and faster and faster. We’ve thus outrun our future. To Reggio, the end, the Eschaton, has already occurred, and we are now living in the aftershock, and he says he is dubious about the veracity of hope. Hope is the substance of what we hope for, and hope is the only term in theology that uses the same term to define itself. It is the substance of what one hopes for that makes hope. So, he declares he is hopeful, but hopeless.
posted by philip-random at 9:04 AM on May 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
searching through the options got me to Godfrey Reggio's wiki. Not your average artist, filmmaker, anything ...
From a soulful beginning in the Church at the age of 14, Reggio passed the ensuing twenty-two years in fasting, long periods of meditative silence, of prayer, vows of life-long poverty, and in choosing to be a monk-friar. It was this ascetic traditional Roman Catholic pontifical teaching Order which ultimately assigned him to the province of Santa Fe, [...]. Witnessing himself in the secular world as a young intellectually zealous monk schooled in the theology of the Medieval Era, he accepted nothing, questioned everything, even eventually to the structure of the Church.
And ..
Reggio’s view of cinematic streaming, beyond the idea of theatre, is not that it shapes our point of view, not how it affects politics, not how it affects religion, or the economy, it is that now so much of everything we learn is situated within its technology. Streaming technology is now part of social media and is thus the new host of a reified visual life. In that sense, Reggio insists, imaging technology is not something we use, it is something we breathe, it is in fact our new mental habitat. We keep pretending as if we can use such technology for good or ill. That is somewhat fanciful since technology has its own autonomy, out of our control, its own politics, its own determination, and its own destiny.
[...]
To support living in a technological version of euphoria our life has become predicated in speed, faster and faster and faster and faster. We’ve thus outrun our future. To Reggio, the end, the Eschaton, has already occurred, and we are now living in the aftershock, and he says he is dubious about the veracity of hope. Hope is the substance of what we hope for, and hope is the only term in theology that uses the same term to define itself. It is the substance of what one hopes for that makes hope. So, he declares he is hopeful, but hopeless.
posted by philip-random at 9:04 AM on May 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Self-link alert: Last year I introduced a filmmaker named Josh Cannon to Koyaanisqatsi. Here's our conversation about his experience.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:13 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by vibrotronica at 9:13 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Writing for the Rocket led to me getting on the screening list for the Seattle film festival the year Koyaaniqatsi was released. I got to watch it one afternoon from an otherwise empty fourth row with four or five other people scattered across the rest of the Egyptian theater. The end scene of the falling burning rocket has haunted me ever since.
From then on, I was hooked on anything Godfrey Reggio touched or inspired: Powaaqatsi, Naqoyqatsi, Baraka, Samsara, et al, following my other surefire viewing mode of going to the matinee the day the movie opens.*
* ...which led me to recently watching Jurassic World Dominion with eight other people in a viewing billed as sold out.
posted by y2karl at 10:16 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
From then on, I was hooked on anything Godfrey Reggio touched or inspired: Powaaqatsi, Naqoyqatsi, Baraka, Samsara, et al, following my other surefire viewing mode of going to the matinee the day the movie opens.*
* ...which led me to recently watching Jurassic World Dominion with eight other people in a viewing billed as sold out.
posted by y2karl at 10:16 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
eep! I now think my first two links above should have been Koyaaniqatsi and Powaaqatsi. But that's the way the rocket falls...
posted by y2karl at 11:32 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 11:32 AM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I share the view that if you sit down to watch Koyaaniqatsi and you start obsessing over whether it has been done before.. or it's boring.. I mean, maybe you aren't in the right frame of mind and that's okay
the Brows Held High segment was super irritating, to me.. does the criticism get better further in?
posted by elkevelvet at 11:42 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
the Brows Held High segment was super irritating, to me.. does the criticism get better further in?
posted by elkevelvet at 11:42 AM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I share the view that if you sit down to watch Koyaaniqatsi and you start obsessing over whether it has been done before.. or it's boring.. I mean, maybe you aren't in the right frame of mind and that's okay
I love this movie and was almost evangelical about it in my younger days, insisting to my friends that they watch it. I do have a random memory of a friend who was shown the film at his school. I asked him if he liked it an he said, "Yeah, it was ok I guess. But after about 30 minutes I was like ok, ok, I get it." Just didn't work for him. Another friend of mine liked the visuals but hated the Philip Glass music.
posted by zardoz at 1:58 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I love this movie and was almost evangelical about it in my younger days, insisting to my friends that they watch it. I do have a random memory of a friend who was shown the film at his school. I asked him if he liked it an he said, "Yeah, it was ok I guess. But after about 30 minutes I was like ok, ok, I get it." Just didn't work for him. Another friend of mine liked the visuals but hated the Philip Glass music.
posted by zardoz at 1:58 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I share the view that if you sit down to watch Koyaaniqatsi and you start obsessing over whether it has been done before.. or it's boring.. I mean, maybe you aren't in the right frame of mind and that's okay
I really loved Koyaanisqatsi and have seen it many times (including watching the Philip Glass Ensemble do a live score) and I liked the other two films in the trilogy. But after watching Visitors on DVD/streaming at home, I think Reggio's films are hard to watch outside the theater environment. Because they're sort of slow to start up and the meaning accretes over time with the visuals/music, they don't stand up very well to the home environment where there are a lot of distractions. I'm glad my first viewing was in the theater because I doubt I would have grokked it otherwise.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 2:07 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I really loved Koyaanisqatsi and have seen it many times (including watching the Philip Glass Ensemble do a live score) and I liked the other two films in the trilogy. But after watching Visitors on DVD/streaming at home, I think Reggio's films are hard to watch outside the theater environment. Because they're sort of slow to start up and the meaning accretes over time with the visuals/music, they don't stand up very well to the home environment where there are a lot of distractions. I'm glad my first viewing was in the theater because I doubt I would have grokked it otherwise.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 2:07 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Another seamless unnarrated documentary I love is Latcho Drom, which is anything but wordless. Ah, La Caita.
posted by y2karl at 2:45 PM on May 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 2:45 PM on May 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
eep! I now think my first two links above should have been Koyaaniqatsi and Powaaqatsi. But that's the way the rocket falls...
My first reaction to this post was to look up my 8-year old post Istaqsinaayok in the Previouslies, but was disappointed to find the main link no longer works.
But it turns out that y2karl's link goes to the movie being played backward. Not that it's a lot different backward. So thanks for that.
If you want to watch it forwards, it's on Tubi. (apparently with commercials)
I never saw this on the big screen, but I remember seeing the trailer in the previews at a very large screen in DC.
There is so much I like about this movie, but my favorite scene is about 2/3 in- images from my early days at IBM: a woman operating a 129, followed by 2 guys discontinuing a 2540. The 2540 was the first machine I was trained on (50 years ago!), and that could easily have been me working on it.
More nostalgia in all the street scenes from the 70's. Remember when conservative businessmen had sideburns?
posted by MtDewd at 3:18 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
My first reaction to this post was to look up my 8-year old post Istaqsinaayok in the Previouslies, but was disappointed to find the main link no longer works.
But it turns out that y2karl's link goes to the movie being played backward. Not that it's a lot different backward. So thanks for that.
If you want to watch it forwards, it's on Tubi. (apparently with commercials)
I never saw this on the big screen, but I remember seeing the trailer in the previews at a very large screen in DC.
There is so much I like about this movie, but my favorite scene is about 2/3 in- images from my early days at IBM: a woman operating a 129, followed by 2 guys discontinuing a 2540. The 2540 was the first machine I was trained on (50 years ago!), and that could easily have been me working on it.
More nostalgia in all the street scenes from the 70's. Remember when conservative businessmen had sideburns?
posted by MtDewd at 3:18 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Every man was his own Isaac Asimov. And backwards, eh? Serves me right for not looking closer.
Koyaaniqatsi
posted by y2karl at 3:26 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Koyaaniqatsi
posted by y2karl at 3:26 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
No worries. Fun watching the Pruitt-Igoe reassemble itself.
posted by MtDewd at 3:43 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by MtDewd at 3:43 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Which may have inspired Tom Cruise's The War of Worlds.
posted by y2karl at 4:03 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by y2karl at 4:03 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Every man was his own Isaac Asimov. And backwards, eh? Serves me right for not looking closer.
I watched the whole thing wondering why most of the footage and audio was running backwards DX
posted by May Kasahara at 4:17 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I watched the whole thing wondering why most of the footage and audio was running backwards DX
posted by May Kasahara at 4:17 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
At some point I watched probably the last 15 minutes or so of Baraka on like IFC or something, became entranced, and then finally watched it (and Koyaanisqatsi) in its entirety in my first year of getting DVDs from netflix.
I've been meaning to watch them again. I suppose I ought to buy them.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:13 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've been meaning to watch them again. I suppose I ought to buy them.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:13 PM on May 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
The first popular feature length "experimental" film screened in cinema theatres since 2001 A Space Odyssey. Showed up hi, went back again for that poignant soundtrack. For many like me, a good introduction to the music of Philip Glass.
It's all good. Jumbo Jet Ballet.
posted by ovvl at 5:22 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's all good. Jumbo Jet Ballet.
posted by ovvl at 5:22 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I first got exposed to Qaatsi and Philip class my a HS English/theatre teacher. But I was incredibly blessed to get full theatre screenings of all three films in College, in conjunction with having Godfrey Reggo as a visiting/ artist/guest lecturer. He wasn't super engaging as a speaker, but it was interesting to hear his perspective.
I recall one person asking if the movies were better under the influence of certain substances. His answer was that the movies were not designed that way, but he understood that certain substances were useful in expanded consciousness which was a goal of the movies.
The closest I have come was when I need to have some major dental work done. I had a dentist who let you bring DVDs to watch on goggles while they hacked away inside you mouth. 90+ minutes in the dental chair with Koyoaniqaatsi is quite the experience
posted by CostcoCultist at 5:45 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I recall one person asking if the movies were better under the influence of certain substances. His answer was that the movies were not designed that way, but he understood that certain substances were useful in expanded consciousness which was a goal of the movies.
The closest I have come was when I need to have some major dental work done. I had a dentist who let you bring DVDs to watch on goggles while they hacked away inside you mouth. 90+ minutes in the dental chair with Koyoaniqaatsi is quite the experience
posted by CostcoCultist at 5:45 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
MtDewd: Thanks for the Tubi link. Worked nicely with my ad blocker, too.
Gotta say that the film makes for much better viewing run forwards!
It's all good. Jumbo Jet Ballet.
This might've been my favorite part.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:01 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Gotta say that the film makes for much better viewing run forwards!
It's all good. Jumbo Jet Ballet.
This might've been my favorite part.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:01 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have to highlight this comment on the Jumbo Jet Ballet clip, in which a 70's car aficionado painstakingly enumerates the make and model, to the best of their ability, of every single car in the highway scenes.
posted by phooky at 6:16 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
CLIP 1 (2:32 to 2:39):...and so on. It somehow reads like a textual reflection of the soundtrack. I don't quite know what to make of it.
Blue 4-Door Sedan/4-Door Compact Sedan: First Generation V10 1982-1986 Toyota Camry / Toyota Celica Camry.
Dark Green and Black 3-Door Sport Compact/3-Door Hatchback: First Generation 1974-1981 Volkswagen Scirocco.
Dark Blue 3-Door Hatchback Coupe/3-Door Liftback Coupe: Third Generation 1974-1981 E30 Toyota Corolla.
White 3-Door Hatchback/3-Door Compact: First Generation 1975-1986 Chevrolet Chevette / Pontiac Acadian T1000/1000 / Isuzu Gemini.
White 4-Door Station Wagon/4-Door Estate Wagon/4-Door Woodie Wagon: Third Generation 1973-1977 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser.
White 4-Door Large Family Saloon/4-Door Large Family Sedan: First Generation 1960-1975 Peugeot 404.
Light Red 2-Door Coupe Utility/2-Door Coupe Utility Muscle Car: Third Generation 1968-1972 Chevrolet El Camino / Chevrolet El Camino SS.
[...]
posted by phooky at 6:16 PM on May 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Hey fellas, I’m trying to give someone the evil eye over there… would you mind breaking it up? Thanks.
posted by Aznable at 7:57 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Aznable at 7:57 PM on May 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
the first time I saw Koyaanisqatsi, in the late 80’s, I had taken a couple grams of mushrooms. O boy. Can you even imagine? That film is permanently etched into my brain. Maybe it is why I have such a bleak outlook of our world.
posted by tarantula at 5:41 AM on May 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by tarantula at 5:41 AM on May 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
The interesting cars for me were later in the Jumbo Jet Ballet, 4:12 to the end.
They started out looking like matchbox cars, and faded into looking like the cars in the Rush Hour game.
posted by MtDewd at 10:35 AM on May 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
They started out looking like matchbox cars, and faded into looking like the cars in the Rush Hour game.
posted by MtDewd at 10:35 AM on May 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I still can't think about Koyaanisqatsi without remembering this post by Joey Buttafoucault.
I still sing that to my wife every now and again.
posted by charred husk at 11:12 AM on May 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I still sing that to my wife every now and again.
posted by charred husk at 11:12 AM on May 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I show extended bits of Koyanisqatsi to one of my archaeology classes, it's brilliant for getting across the idea of foreshortened and stretched temporal frames of reference and how after a little while it does become hard to determine if what you are seeing is slightly sped up or slowed down or regular speed and basically that is also one of the central concerns of archaeology.
posted by Rumple at 1:29 PM on May 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Rumple at 1:29 PM on May 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Koyaaniqatsi and Powaaqatsi
I'm a fan, since seeing them first-run in the cinema. I describe them as the kind of film you might see in a pavilion at the World's Fair. The former ruled for years, and I didn't really know what to think of the latter, decided it wasn't near as good, after my first viewing; but that opinion's shifted over the years such that now I prefer Powaaqatsi. It was a triggering factor in my decision to travel around the world; and also after hearing (and really appreciating) "Anthem" as it was used in The Truman Show.
posted by Rash at 1:42 PM on May 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm a fan, since seeing them first-run in the cinema. I describe them as the kind of film you might see in a pavilion at the World's Fair. The former ruled for years, and I didn't really know what to think of the latter, decided it wasn't near as good, after my first viewing; but that opinion's shifted over the years such that now I prefer Powaaqatsi. It was a triggering factor in my decision to travel around the world; and also after hearing (and really appreciating) "Anthem" as it was used in The Truman Show.
posted by Rash at 1:42 PM on May 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'll admit that I'd basically forgotten about KOYAANISQATSI, until it started getting sampled in the various Ponies: The Anthology video collabs.
posted by xedrik at 3:55 PM on May 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 3:55 PM on May 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I remember seeing this in a theater while I was in college and coming out of it really affected for the rest of the evening. I remember going to the library, not even knowing what I was looking for, trying in vain to find something to read that would relate to what I had just experienced.
One thing that it did do for me was to make Phillip Glass's minimalism make a lot more sense somehow. Like he was doing what sound, in terms of manipulating time, what the film editors were doing with the moving images.
posted by umbú at 8:55 AM on May 9, 2023
One thing that it did do for me was to make Phillip Glass's minimalism make a lot more sense somehow. Like he was doing what sound, in terms of manipulating time, what the film editors were doing with the moving images.
posted by umbú at 8:55 AM on May 9, 2023
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