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 industri-alization. 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-pro-duced C.G.I. elements. The film runs 89 minutes.

The 'Qatsi Trilogy' Movies

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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

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WebRing fragment here

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