Review 2. Koyaanisqatsi

Created by: Godfrey Reggia
1983
Duration: 1hr 20mins

Koyaanisqatsi, translated means: Life out of balance.
A state of life that calls for another way of living.

Balance is the core of the world, with good there is evil, with day there is night.
Godfreys video portrays many different types of balance and contrast.

With the film starting off with tribl drawings in a cave, and ending with a rocket firing off into space the main contrast is highley obvious; techinical and natural ways of life.
The same with the landscapes of the Grand Canyon and New York. Nature against man.
Another concept which is also shown throughout the video is destruction. Old buildings were being demolished and replaced by newer buildings, which shows the differences between rich and poor. This concept is also portrayed through the people in the video.
Throughout the video, the scenes changed in speed, some were slowed down whereas others were sped up. I think that this symbolises that we need to slow down on the planet, that technology is advancing rapidly and we are constantly relying on it.

The visual images in Koyaanisqatsi are very empowering, most of the shots are shown in either slow or fast motion. There are many night scenes throughout the video. In some we see people in the buildings turning their lights on or off. This is also going against nature; when the world is dark we can make light.
There were many explosions in the film, the fire is natural and the fire wins over technology.
A lot of the shots seemed very dim in lighting, with a dusty effect. This reffers back to the concept of old and new and what Man has made the Earth become.
There are many blurry visuals in Koyaanisqatsi, this could be to show that the world is blind to the mess that we have and still are creating.
At the beginning of the film we see cave drawings, it stays showing these for about a minute so it immediately seems important to the film.


The music in Koyaanisqatsi is non diagetic. It is cleverly placed to create completely different meanings to what is happening in the scene, for example; at the end of the video the rocket blew up and as it fell the music was soft and peaceful. If the music had been heavy and fast then the audience would see it as intense rather than have sympathy.
The peaceful music could also be there to show that the world is at peace again and that in the end technology failed and slight balance is restored.
At the very beginning of the film when we see the cave drawings, there is tribal chant music in the background, this is played a few times throughout the film.
The are some parts where dramatic music is being played even though nothing particularly disturbing is happening, however; that fact that we see nothing disturbing happening is probably the point that the video is trying to make. These terrible things are happening and because we arent worried about them, we are not shocked by them.

Overall i found Koyaanisqatsi very interesting. It is a very empowering piece and makes you see these problems in a different light. The way in which it is showed is interesting, with only non diagetic sound, and the simple effect of slow and fast motion, the concepts are shown effortlessly.