When I recently realized that the film Koyaanisqatsi (1982) by Godfrey Reggio has not been featured on the DPV yet I was quite shocked. After all, I consider this film to be possibly the most psychedelic and impressive film ever. Still, maybe there is a reason to that. You don’t watch Koyaanisqatsi on YouTube and even though I now feature it here, I encourage and urge you to get the full high-quality film and watch it in one piece on a big screen as it should be watched.
How to explain Koyaanisqatsi. The word itself means “Life out of balance” in the Hopi language, and the film dwells on the topic of human civilization’s loss of balance and it’s destruction of life and nature on this planet. A movie with no words, it begins with spectacular unmoving images of nature and gradually accelerates until reaching the breathless world of the modern city.
Koyaanisqatsi was the grandfather of many films that would be later made in the same style, not only Reggio’s own Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi but also more popular titles such as Baraka, Samsara and Chronos. None of the above have achieved, in my mind, the same philosophical profundity and spiritual depth which characterize Koyaanisqatsi. Highly recommended.
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