Qatsi - Life

The "Qatsi" trilogy is a set of three art films that I have been recently watching and pondering upon. A film history aficionado gave me the first of these films for Christmas last year, and I was fascinated. I purchased the other two in the trilogy this month. Via their form and message, these movies hit me at a deep level. If I were snobbish and wanted to sound super-intellectual I might say that they "spoke to my inner artist". But I'm not, and I don't, so I won't. (sorry, that sentence was just too fun to leave out) But I think you get the idea--and I will get more into the why of all this later.

First, some technical stats to put us all on the same page. The "Qatsi" trilogy was directed by Godfrey Reggio and the soundtrack written by Philip Glass. They are essentially "art" films in form--no dialogue, no characters, no plot...just images and music. "Qatsi" is apparently the Hopi Indian word for "life", and all three movie titles are made up of compound nouns formed with this word. Here's a quick look at each movie (complete with the pronunciation guide I wish someone had given me to start with):

#1: Koyaanisqatsi (Koy-ah-ni-SKAHT-zee)
Meaning: Life out of Balance
Summary: Basically examines the conflict between the natural world and the developed one
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6pVLQAY1HM

#2: Powaqqatsi (Pow-ahck-CAHT-zee...it looks like I'm trying to write out the phonetics of my cat hacking up a hairball, doesn't it?)
Meaning: Life in Transformation
Summary: Examines the effect that modern development is having on third-world countries
Trailer: http://www.truveo.com/POWAQQATSI-Godfrey-Reggio-Trailer/id/3939422496

#3: Naqoyqatsi (Nah-koy-CAHT-zee)
Meaning: Life as War
Summary: Examines America's current and future way of life as lived on a grid of technology and bound by war as everyday life
Trailer: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145937/trailers

Hopefully you now have a better idea of what we're talking about...watching at least one of the trailers really helps more than all my awkward descriptions. Now we can get into the mushy cerebral stuff.

People's initial reaction to these movies usually runs along one of two lines:
"This is as boring as watching paint dry and this music is giving me a headache."
OR
"Wow, this is a powerful piece of visual art with a mesmerizing score."
Honestly, I can understand either response. I just happen to fall into the second category. Moving on from there, those who do like these movies then try to interpret the message. A lot of people who appreciate the art of these movies do not like the message; they complain that it seems like an anti-development, environmentalist, anti-America, anti-human rant fest. I can see where this is coming from--these movies do not really paint a flattering picture of technological development, of consumerism, and so on. However, I think categorizing their message so strongly is inaccurate. In my opinion, these movies present their message in a very subtle, very open-ended fashion. We're not talking about Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" here...we are talking about what might rather fancifully be called a music video of our planet. To me, these movies quietly show us our world--the natural part, the human part, the technology part--and quietly say "this is how we have made our world. Are we happy with it?" And the fact that many people are uncomfortable with the world portrayed in these films says more, I think, about the audience's mindset than the filmmaker's.

Sure, the makers of this trilogy did not just line up images without some eye for emotional manipulation. However, I often think to myself, the images in these films are not made up. They were all filmed from something real. 99% of the images you see in these movies are unstaged, unscripted life. So the stuff we see exists...what do we do with it? Lastly, I find it interesting that--although the filmmakers obviously have much more of a New Age worldview than a Christian one--almost every element of these films can be translated into a powerful secondary meaning for Christians. In this case it becomes not so much technology against nature as it becomes how man's creation will always be inferior to God's creation. And so on.

I'm having quite a bit of trouble corralling everything I want to say into a coherent, orderly fashion here. So bear with me and for the rest of my space I'm going to take a quick look at each movie individually.

Koyaanisqatsi: This movie is the most famous of the three by far, and if you want to watch just one as a matter of interest--watch this one. I think the whole piece is available on YouTube. Like I said before, this movie begins with images of nature, then images of city life, then images of humanity stuck in the middle of it all. Far from being environmentalist, I think this movie is actually quite open to celebrating some of the technological achievements of man. But overall, this movie plays like a delicate tragedy. It really examines humanity being trapped in a world of their own making. It's very sad, but not bombastic and down-putting. The concluding shot--which must be one of the longest continuous shots ever in film--basically sums up the entire point of the movie breathtakingly. This movie has gotten to me ever since I first watched it, firstly because I have always been fascinated by the combination of image and music, and partly because of how powerful it is. (ending a paragraph with the word "is" will probably get me kicked out of English class, I know)

Powaqqatsi: This movie is a little bit bigger than its predecessor. The viewing time is longer, the music is more upbeat, the images are brighter and bolder and the whole thing is less wistful and delicate (although not necessarily better) than Koyaanisqatsi. More of a "National Geographic" feel. This one has its moments of genius entirely separate in feel from any of its companions...in my opinion it has two or three of the best-edited sequences of the entire trilogy. It is much more human-oriented than the others, and once again could be seen as a celebration of God's creation.

Naqoyqatsi: Well, this is quite a departure. The focus of this film is highly abstract; every image is visually manipulated somehow. So the new mind game is not just to figure out why they inserted a certain image, but also why they manipulated it the way they did. It all says something. Some parts are abstracted reality, while others are complete, light-show style abstraction. Although most of it accumulates into a powerful message, I have yet to understand some images at all. This movie is the most aggressive and daring in its message, and this has repercussions. When it succeeds, it succeeds almost more greatly than any other. But when it falls flat, it really falls. So this is the combination...some of it went too far and thus fails. But other parts are so completely powerful they just blow you away. It is certainly the hardest to watch and the most disturbing, but it is in some ways the best. However, the ending falls flat for me. It's too over-the-top, and I'm not sure I get it. Nothing can match the ending of Koyaanisqatsi.

...And now I really don't know why I just took the time to write all this. I don't think I managed to capture what I was trying to say, and you are probably even now thinking "and why do I care about this?". I guess I was just so excited about the power of these films that I wanted to tell someone...so I apologize to and thank anyone who had the endurance to read this far. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to say later in the week.