Movies - Koyaanisqatsi

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	Movies - Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of balance is a documentary film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by minimalist composer Philip Glass and cimatography by Ron Fricke. The film consists mostly of slow motion and time-lapse photography. The documentary contains no narration and relies heavily on music to set the film's tone.

The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films, including the films Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. The trilogy depicts different aspects of man and technology. Due to copyright issues, the film was out-of-print for over a decade. Glass and his Philip Glass Ensemble have toured with the film, playing the music live in front of the film screen.

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The film has several cinematic sequences. Each of these sequences has a distinct musical feel, although themes from earlier sections of the score recur frequently throughout. The chapters on the Koyaanisqatsi DVD are separated and named by the titles of the musical sections.

The film's first image of the film is a cave painting depicting several tall darkly-shadowed figures standing near a taller figure adorned with a crown. The next image is a close-up of the Saturn 5 rocket from the Apollo 12 mission during take-off. The film fades into a shot of a desolate desert landscape. From there, it progresses to footage of various natural environmental phenomena such as waves and cloud formations.

The films first shot of man's involvement in the environment is a large mining truck giving off billows of black smoke in the chapter titled "Resource". This is followed by shots of power lines set up in the desert. Man's continued involvement in the environment is depicted with mining operations, overhead shots of power plants, the Hoover Dam and stock footage atomic bombs set off in the Nevada desert.

The sequence entitled "Vessels" contains the films longest single take: a three-minute-thirty-two-second long shot of two United Airlines commercial passenger Boeing 747s being taxied around the runway. "Vessels" also contains shots of traffic patterns and a shot of a large parking lot. This is followed with stock footage of tanks lined up in rows and military aircraft flying over a desert.

The juxtaposition of man and nature is seen again in the chapter "Cloudscape". The stop-motion photography of shadows of clouds are seen moving across the skycrapers in New York City.

The sequence "Pruitt 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 known for its modernist design, but fell into immediate disrepair from misuse of its tenant population. The sequence ends with stock footage of the destruction of large buildings and a shot of a television sets being blown up.

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 city streets shot in with slow motion photography.

"The Grid" is the film's longest sequence, roughly 22 minutes in length. The cimematic 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 is characterized by its use of time lapse photography of the activity of modern life, taking events typically shot at normal speed and speeding them up. The events captured in this sequence involve people interacting with modern technology. The first shots are of traffic patterns as seen from skyscrapers at night. This is followed by the films iconic shot of the moon passing behind a skyscraper. The next shots are a closer shots of cars driving on highway. The sun comes up over the city and we see shots of people hurrying to work. The film shows at regular speed the operation of machines packaging Oscar Meyer 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 into a mall. 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 television on an assembly line and elevators moving from first person perspective. The film then shows clips from various televison shows being channel surfed shown in fast motion photography. One portion of this sequence shows a man and two different couples reacting to being filmed on the street in slow motion photography. The man is somewhat indifferent to being filmed, but one woman is appears peeved and one man looks confused about being filmed. The sequence now shows cars moving much faster than the speed they were moving before. Both the sequence and the music end with out any resolution cinematic or musical.

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Movies - Koyaanisqatsi

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