i always thought that the score was the whole point
just trying to think where i first saw it. i assumed it was at edinburgh university film soc (i was friends with the soc's chairman) but it can't be. some art-house place in london, i guess.
A few years ago I saw go go penguin perform their imagining of the koyaanisqatsi soundtrack live. It was one of the best things I've ever seen. I was spellbound from start to finish.
I’m thinking that the performance that I saw had the PGE plus the Hollywood Bowl symphony playing live to the movie, but I could be misremembering it and the symphony may have played other material with the PGE before or after the movie.
I saw PGE and the LA Philharmonic performing live with the movie in 2009 at the Hollywood Bowl, and they also performed other pieces, so you're likely remembering correctly.
Samsara is pretty great as well, mostly because of the impeccable cinematography and shelling out for 70mm film and lugging cameras and lenses which film in 70mm around the world.
Back in the 90s a bunch of us watched the whole movie by accident. Somehow it came up in conversation and the guy whose house we were in happened to have a copy on VHS and he put it in and we got so mesmerized that while we only intended to watch a few minutes of it, we watched the whole thing.
There are two “sequels” to Koyaanisqatsi: Powisqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, both also with Philip Glass soundtracks.
I hugely prefer Koy to Baraka, but the world takes all sorts. Baraka just feels like a lot of nice vignettes in random sequence. Koy walks through themes, builds upon them, then repeats them. It's more like a symphony.
I think the aesthetic of Koyaanisqatsi had a large effect of on film aesthetics.
Breaking Bad's best scenes IMO were the Timelapses which I found very reminiscent Koyaanisqatsi.
> Koyaanisqatsi might be more important in cinematic history, but Baraka is actually enjoyable to watch.
To each his own. I'm not sure I'd call watching Koyaanisqatsi exactly "enjoyable" (that sounds like it's cheapening the experience), but I've seen it at least 5 times.
Ron Fricke is person who made Koyaanisqatsi the beautiful visual journey that it is. I would recommend watching any of his other works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Fricke
(FWIW, Powaqqatsi is also pretty good, but I would strongly suggest avoiding Naqoyqatsi which is just not very good).
Thanks for sharing. Baraka is one of my favorite movies and one the the very few Bluray disks I actually own. It was one of the last movies to be shot entirely in 70mm[0]. At the time Ebert declared it the finest video disk ever made[1]. There was a recent 8K reissue of Baraka, but I have not seen it.
In addition to Baraka and especially Samsara (the best known film in this genre), I'd suggest the films of Nikolaus Geyrhalter. "Our Daily Bread" is a really good film looking at food production specifically.
Jeez still gets my heart pumping - watched just 3 minutes (0:45:00 -> 0:48:00 where it does the 'cars flowing like blood through veins in a city) and the real human orchestra music just nails it.
The composition of the shots makes me ask, Why are we living this way? Good and bad outcomes, ofc, and the film makes me ask myself questions.
Seeing this post/thread brings back some good memories!
Am happy to see Phillip Glass is on Bandcamp. I found an old cassette copy of Koyaanisqatsi kicking around but also just got a digital copy of the soundtrack there; happy to support a living artist.
I remember coming out of the cinema completely mesmerized. A but like reading poetry when you cannot express why it touches you.
I watched quite a few experimental films and some can be long after only 5 minutes. Koyaanisqatsi on the other hand feels completely coherent and keeps its tension for 90 minutes even if I couldn’t re-tell the story.
Does anyone have any information on the Hopi prophecies quoted in the article and in the film? Are they documented elsewhere? It seems a little suspicious to me that the Hopi text so closely matches 1970s American environmentalism/anxiety about nuclear weapons. I suspect there has been some creative translation.
I actually wrote to the linguist listed in the Koyaanisqatsi credits for the original text in Hopi and he said he couldn't find it....
> This episode of [Hopi] existence begins with the extraordinarily cruel act of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 by the United States’ Air Force, near the end of World War II. Among the remote consequences of this attack, one or two years later, a group of Hopi of the Second Mesa at their ceremonial reunions (kivas) started “equating the atomic bomb with a prophetic story about a gourd of ashes which brought destruction when it was cast on the ground,” according to anthropologist Brian D. Haley. By 1948, with the devastation of planet Earth in mind because of human greed, elders and religious leaders of the Second and Third Mesa decided it was urgent to share this prophecy with the “White people” so that everyone could be prepared for Purification Day, the moment when deity of the current fourth world, Maasaw, would come and redeem humanity, creating a new paradise on Earth.
> The effort to spread the word on the ancient prophecies is what anthropologist Richard Clemmer designated the “Hopi Traditionalist Movement.” The Hopi agenda, though, was more than a spiritual calling; it was very political. In 1949 they sent President Truman a letter in which they detailed their prophecies and message of awareness, but also their position about land ownership, mineral extraction permits, the cultural and political rights of indigenous peoples, and pending US policies. With the help of non-Native People, the movement got the attention of conscientious objectors and draft resisters of the Second World War, pacifists, anarchists, spiritual radicals, and, in time, the different counterculture circles of the 1950s, 60s and 70s ...
> It’s the mid 1970s and Godfrey Reggio does not have a name for the film he is shooting. His co-workers are telling him they are not going to get distribution or financial aid if he does not name it. Reggio had resisted to do so until then, because for him the images were the message. Persuaded, he starts searching for a word “with no cultural baggage, a new word to describe the world.” ...
> Living in Santa Fe, Reggio was near the Hopi reservation and had friends that were “Hopi devotees,” as he calls them. They insisted on the connections between his creative project and the Traditional Hopi Movement’s prophecies. He met David Monongye, one of the Hopi spokesmen of Hotevilla, by giving him a ride from the reservation to a doctor’s appointment and they became friends. Reggio liked the idea of naming his film with an originally non-written language to evoke his argument that the literate culture he lived in was no longer a good describer for the insanity he saw all around. Thus, he contacted the linguist Ekkehart Malotki, who knew the Hopi language, and his Hopi co-worker Michael Lomatuway’ma. They introduced him to the word koyaanisqatsi, a concept that nailed his awareness. Reggio went to David Monongye for permission. “David said it’s an ancient word,” recalls Reggio today, “a word that’s not in popular use. He didn’t talk much about it, but he said the definition we had, took the meaning of the word.” ...
> Reggio not only asked for Monongye’s opinion, he also went through two more examinations by clan leaders of other villages: first by Mina Lansa, the traditional leader of Old Oraibi, and her husband John, then by a group of members of the 2nd Mesa. Reggio felt as he had gone through an ecclesiastical interrogation once again, and in a language he couldn’t understand, but with better results. All of them gave him consent.
Tough to say without being Hopi. There are many things they cannot share unless you’re Hopi. Same with other tribes. Curious, what did the linguist say exactly?
Oppenheimer famously quoted the Bhagavad-Gita to describe witnessing/pulling off the first atomic detonation. I'd say that it was the first time that humanity actually controlled a godlike power, but gods and prophecies of apocalypse have long been a feature of religion. And it hardly seems surprising that native people would take issue with despoiling the land.
Thanks for the rabbit hole! If the wikipedia citations are reliable, you might check all three of:
Christopher Vecsey. The Emergence of the Hopi People, in American Indian Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 3, American Indian Religions, 70 (Summer 1983).
Harold Courlander. The Fourth World of the Hopis: The Epic Story of the Hopi Indians as Preserved in their Legends and Traditions, 201 University of New Mexico Press, 1987
Susan E. James. "Some Aspects of the Aztec Religion in the Hopi Kachina Cult", Journal of the Southwest (2000)
In particular, the wiki article [1] cites the first to claim, “Hopi mythology is not always told consistently and each Hopi mesa, or even each village, may have its own version of a particular story” which would presumably provide ample opportunities to walk in the gray area between quoting and creative translation you mention.
In addition to that angle, the Palo Verde nuclear plant broke ground in 1976 [2] so it’s not ridiculous to think that the public might have been concerned and discussing it around 1972 when some of the first film was taken. No citation there but not would be another avenue to investigate.
Koyaanisqatsi is just one of those Magic films that you can start watching and think yeah whatever - and then as it goes on and on you just get more and more blown away by incredible intensity of the soundtrack and visuals. A really transcendental experience.
The backstory that Philip Glass originally didn’t want to score it is also amazing, as is the reason for Francis Ford Coppola’s name being on the artwork even though he had nothing to do with the film.
> Francis Ford Coppola’s name being on the artwork even though he had nothing to do with the film.
Sounds like a strange take. From [1]:
> Koyaanisqatsi opens with the words “Presented by Francis Ford Coppola.” This simple endorsement by one of cinema’s most renowned directors solidified the film’s reputation and propelled it into movie theaters around the world.
Not sure if FFC gave them money (I guess yes since he's credited as executive producer), even without money, his name would've been enough to open a lot of doors.
Reminds of how Werner Herzog got involved in "The Act of Killing" [2], watching an 8-minute excerpt at breakfast was enough.
From what I understood, he simply endorsed the film to help it get a wider audience. He didn't produce, direct, or have an involvement with the making of the film. That's what I meant.
Producers, executive or otherwise, are usually involved in financing the film before and during its production. This didn't happen. He saw it after production and felt compelled to help spread the message.
I think it's great that he did, but it's surely one of those weird artefacts of why Koyaanisqatsi is successful.
It's remarkably difficult to find sources seeing as searching for 'Koyaanisqatsi' and 'Philip Glass' brings up a ton of renditions!
But the story goes something like this: He turned down the request to score the film, because he didn't consider himself a composer of film scores. So, the director went and got a load of Philip Glass music and overlaid it on the film himself and sent it to Glass. Once he saw it, he was in.
Nothing particularly mind-blowing in terms of a tale of how the film got made, but it could have easily gone in a completely different direction and not be the film we know.
My kids (age 3 and 5) wanted to watch a movie and I didn't really want them watching one so I bluffed and put on Koyaanisqatsi. They (and I, for the first time in ~15 years) were enthralled. Ended up talking about poverty, etc.
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."
I was a teenager riding a bicycle through a neighborhood, when I came across a yard sale. Heard that someone had died. Among their things was a tape of the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack composed by Philip Glass. Bought it for a couple of bucks, and later that night was blown away by the music. I had heard nothing like it before - it made me shiver with awe and fear. It felt like the dead was reaching out through the sounds. A few years later I watched the film and had a vision of the monstrous beauty, this ancient swarming organism called humanity, of which I'm like a finger or toe, a leaf and flower. Hard to describe the influence this film has had on my view of the world, and what art can do to you - even now it gives me goose bumps remembering that aesthetic experience in my youth.
I had a similiar experience watching Baraka as a young teen. It had felt like Humanity was some kind of mecanism propelling forward, and I was a tiny gear.
It was pretty magical. This was 2003 (20 years ago then) in a massive soviet-era concert hall.
It was the first time it saw the film and the live aspect left me a lot of questions whether this is somehow a completely different experience from the actual film.
I've since watched it at home many times and the live-band aspect is obviously immense but the music was pretty close to the film.
I attended the press conference as well and one of his answers really struck me.
He was asked about how he composes film scores and his answer included something along the lines: "I only compose based on the script, I never watch any of the footage before the composition is finished."
If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to check out some of Philip Glass's other soundtracks. One I like in particular is The Illusionist.
There's also a very short video game OST of a game called Splice [0], [1] that coincidentally I'm listening to right now which is very similar to Glass's music. My playcount on each of the tracks is literally over 1000, and my playcount on the first track is over 2000 (getting close to 2500 now) because once I didn't notice I had it on loop(1) rather than loop(all) for several days.
It's the only music I'm able to listen to when I have a mild migraine, although when the headache gets bad I require absolute silence.
Does anyone know if either the iTunes or Vudu digital HD versions are from the Criteron Bluray versions, or just upscaled “HD” from MGM? I’m suspect of the quality that I might get if I buy the digital versions vs just shelling out for the Qatsi Bluray Criterion trilogy (I know that physical is always leaps and bounds better than streaming digital but that is not what this question is about).
The "output" of our brains is largely dependent on "input". Therefore, tumble dryer should produce less interesting results than a well crafted audiovisual work.
One of my favorite films of all time, and still relevant today. As a young person it totally altered my view of time and humanity.
Subsequent viewings have always revealed new interpretations as my life and surroundings changed. I think on the dvd director’s commentary the director said something to this effect, how so many people he spoke with had completely takes on what the movie was about.
Also part of the magic of the film was the active collaboration between Glass and Reggio as it was being filmed and re-cut; the music and the cinematography are inseparable.
A high school near where I lived at the time (southern New Jersey) created a mural in the cafeteria inspired by, and titled, Koyaanisqatsi. And this was in the early 90's well after the film had been shown in theaters.
It was in the Deptford Township High School, but this was a long time ago, the early 90's. I have no idea if is is still there or if it has been painted over since then.
There's a fantastic post-rock cover of the film's best-known song (Prophecies) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwolSFreL3M . I can't find anything about this band but I love this version of it.
The film was shot and framed in 4:3 but was cropped down (for reasons unknown to me) into widescreen for the theatrical and later the Blu-ray releases.
There is a rare uncropped DVD release of it by a distributor called "IRE" out there. My understanding is that every copy of this release is autographed by the director, if you need some proof of artistic intent. AFAIK there's no definitive proof that this isn't just "open matte", but IMO the superiority of this release is pretty clear. You can find it on public torrent sites.
Its interesting that he mentioned that mentioned that the music was used in Stranger Things, season 4. Season 3 used music from Glass's opera Satyagraha, Season 4 (at least in the scene I remember) starts the Koyaaniqatsi music but subtly transitions to music from Glass's opera Akhnaten. They're both exposition scenes where the bad guy explains what he's doing or his world view.
I thought the music was particularly effective in those scenes. Clearly there is a Philip Glass fan on that show.
While this movie is great and everything the author says rings true, I must be honest and say for me the movie that floored me more was Baraka. It’s just…astonishing, mesmorising, dumbfounding? I can’t put into words now this movie makes me feel
120 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 222 ms ] threadjust trying to think where i first saw it. i assumed it was at edinburgh university film soc (i was friends with the soc's chairman) but it can't be. some art-house place in london, i guess.
https://www.nonesuch.com/journal/philip-glass-ensemble-la-ph...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film)
No narration at all, just amazing visuals and music/sounds. Review by Ebert:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-baraka-1992
IMHO the best use for Koyaanisqatsi is as an answer when playing charades.
There are two “sequels” to Koyaanisqatsi: Powisqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, both also with Philip Glass soundtracks.
To each his own. I'm not sure I'd call watching Koyaanisqatsi exactly "enjoyable" (that sounds like it's cheapening the experience), but I've seen it at least 5 times.
https://vimeo.com/188504388
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_70_mm_films
[1] https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1941
https://watchdocumentaries.com/koyaanisqatsi/
The composition of the shots makes me ask, Why are we living this way? Good and bad outcomes, ofc, and the film makes me ask myself questions.
Am happy to see Phillip Glass is on Bandcamp. I found an old cassette copy of Koyaanisqatsi kicking around but also just got a digital copy of the soundtrack there; happy to support a living artist.
I watched quite a few experimental films and some can be long after only 5 minutes. Koyaanisqatsi on the other hand feels completely coherent and keeps its tension for 90 minutes even if I couldn’t re-tell the story.
I actually wrote to the linguist listed in the Koyaanisqatsi credits for the original text in Hopi and he said he couldn't find it....
> This episode of [Hopi] existence begins with the extraordinarily cruel act of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 by the United States’ Air Force, near the end of World War II. Among the remote consequences of this attack, one or two years later, a group of Hopi of the Second Mesa at their ceremonial reunions (kivas) started “equating the atomic bomb with a prophetic story about a gourd of ashes which brought destruction when it was cast on the ground,” according to anthropologist Brian D. Haley. By 1948, with the devastation of planet Earth in mind because of human greed, elders and religious leaders of the Second and Third Mesa decided it was urgent to share this prophecy with the “White people” so that everyone could be prepared for Purification Day, the moment when deity of the current fourth world, Maasaw, would come and redeem humanity, creating a new paradise on Earth.
> The effort to spread the word on the ancient prophecies is what anthropologist Richard Clemmer designated the “Hopi Traditionalist Movement.” The Hopi agenda, though, was more than a spiritual calling; it was very political. In 1949 they sent President Truman a letter in which they detailed their prophecies and message of awareness, but also their position about land ownership, mineral extraction permits, the cultural and political rights of indigenous peoples, and pending US policies. With the help of non-Native People, the movement got the attention of conscientious objectors and draft resisters of the Second World War, pacifists, anarchists, spiritual radicals, and, in time, the different counterculture circles of the 1950s, 60s and 70s ...
> It’s the mid 1970s and Godfrey Reggio does not have a name for the film he is shooting. His co-workers are telling him they are not going to get distribution or financial aid if he does not name it. Reggio had resisted to do so until then, because for him the images were the message. Persuaded, he starts searching for a word “with no cultural baggage, a new word to describe the world.” ...
> Living in Santa Fe, Reggio was near the Hopi reservation and had friends that were “Hopi devotees,” as he calls them. They insisted on the connections between his creative project and the Traditional Hopi Movement’s prophecies. He met David Monongye, one of the Hopi spokesmen of Hotevilla, by giving him a ride from the reservation to a doctor’s appointment and they became friends. Reggio liked the idea of naming his film with an originally non-written language to evoke his argument that the literate culture he lived in was no longer a good describer for the insanity he saw all around. Thus, he contacted the linguist Ekkehart Malotki, who knew the Hopi language, and his Hopi co-worker Michael Lomatuway’ma. They introduced him to the word koyaanisqatsi, a concept that nailed his awareness. Reggio went to David Monongye for permission. “David said it’s an ancient word,” recalls Reggio today, “a word that’s not in popular use. He didn’t talk much about it, but he said the definition we had, took the meaning of the word.” ...
> Reggio not only asked for Monongye’s opinion, he also went through two more examinations by clan leaders of other villages: first by Mina Lansa, the traditional leader of Old Oraibi, and her husband John, then by a group of members of the 2nd Mesa. Reggio felt as he had gone through an ecclesiastical interrogation once again, and in a language he couldn’t understand, but with better results. All of them gave him consent.
Christopher Vecsey. The Emergence of the Hopi People, in American Indian Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 3, American Indian Religions, 70 (Summer 1983).
Harold Courlander. The Fourth World of the Hopis: The Epic Story of the Hopi Indians as Preserved in their Legends and Traditions, 201 University of New Mexico Press, 1987
Susan E. James. "Some Aspects of the Aztec Religion in the Hopi Kachina Cult", Journal of the Southwest (2000)
In particular, the wiki article [1] cites the first to claim, “Hopi mythology is not always told consistently and each Hopi mesa, or even each village, may have its own version of a particular story” which would presumably provide ample opportunities to walk in the gray area between quoting and creative translation you mention.
In addition to that angle, the Palo Verde nuclear plant broke ground in 1976 [2] so it’s not ridiculous to think that the public might have been concerned and discussing it around 1972 when some of the first film was taken. No citation there but not would be another avenue to investigate.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi_mythology
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_...
https://kagi.com/images?q=hopi+spiral+image
This struck me because if one traces star across the night sky it's like a spiral but if you trace a body in are solar system it's an arc.
I think I'm an amateur at everything.
I can also recommend Manufactured Landscapes.
The backstory that Philip Glass originally didn’t want to score it is also amazing, as is the reason for Francis Ford Coppola’s name being on the artwork even though he had nothing to do with the film.
absolutely awesome
Sounds like a strange take. From [1]:
> Koyaanisqatsi opens with the words “Presented by Francis Ford Coppola.” This simple endorsement by one of cinema’s most renowned directors solidified the film’s reputation and propelled it into movie theaters around the world.
Not sure if FFC gave them money (I guess yes since he's credited as executive producer), even without money, his name would've been enough to open a lot of doors.
Reminds of how Werner Herzog got involved in "The Act of Killing" [2], watching an 8-minute excerpt at breakfast was enough.
[1] https://culturacolectiva.com/en/movies/francis-ford-coppolas...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=87&v=LLQxVy7R9qo
Producers, executive or otherwise, are usually involved in financing the film before and during its production. This didn't happen. He saw it after production and felt compelled to help spread the message.
I think it's great that he did, but it's surely one of those weird artefacts of why Koyaanisqatsi is successful.
But the story goes something like this: He turned down the request to score the film, because he didn't consider himself a composer of film scores. So, the director went and got a load of Philip Glass music and overlaid it on the film himself and sent it to Glass. Once he saw it, he was in.
Nothing particularly mind-blowing in terms of a tale of how the film got made, but it could have easily gone in a completely different direction and not be the film we know.
It was the first time it saw the film and the live aspect left me a lot of questions whether this is somehow a completely different experience from the actual film.
I've since watched it at home many times and the live-band aspect is obviously immense but the music was pretty close to the film.
I attended the press conference as well and one of his answers really struck me.
He was asked about how he composes film scores and his answer included something along the lines: "I only compose based on the script, I never watch any of the footage before the composition is finished."
There's also a very short video game OST of a game called Splice [0], [1] that coincidentally I'm listening to right now which is very similar to Glass's music. My playcount on each of the tracks is literally over 1000, and my playcount on the first track is over 2000 (getting close to 2500 now) because once I didn't notice I had it on loop(1) rather than loop(all) for several days.
It's the only music I'm able to listen to when I have a mild migraine, although when the headache gets bad I require absolute silence.
[0] https://cipherprime.bandcamp.com/album/flight-of-angels-spli...
[1] https://cipherprime.bandcamp.com/album/algorithms-and-angelo...
Subsequent viewings have always revealed new interpretations as my life and surroundings changed. I think on the dvd director’s commentary the director said something to this effect, how so many people he spoke with had completely takes on what the movie was about.
Also part of the magic of the film was the active collaboration between Glass and Reggio as it was being filmed and re-cut; the music and the cinematography are inseparable.
This piece resonates so much with what the movie and soundtrack evoked in me.
I discovered Glass' works from it and love his discography.
There is a rare uncropped DVD release of it by a distributor called "IRE" out there. My understanding is that every copy of this release is autographed by the director, if you need some proof of artistic intent. AFAIK there's no definitive proof that this isn't just "open matte", but IMO the superiority of this release is pretty clear. You can find it on public torrent sites.
Some more info here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Koyaanisqatsi-IRE-Fullscre...
I thought the music was particularly effective in those scenes. Clearly there is a Philip Glass fan on that show.