Happy 80th Birthday, Godfrey Reggio! Born today in 1940, this American screenwriter and director of experimental documentary features is a pioneer of a film style that creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide.
Reggio is prominent in the film world for his socioeconomic Qatsi film trilogy; essays of visual images and sound that chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment.
Of the trilogy, he is best known for co-writing, producing and directing the 1982 American experimental documentary film 'Koyaanisqatsi', also known as 'Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance'.
The best known of the trilogy, 'Koyaanisqatsi' is considered a cult film. However, because of copyright issues, the film was out of print for most of the 1990s.
For 'Koyaanisqatsi', the music was written by American composer and pianist Philip Glass and was shot with hypnotic time-lapse photography by American film director and cinematographer Ron Fricke.
The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States.
The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music.
Reggio explained the lack of dialogue by stating "it's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live." In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means "unbalanced life".
On October 4, 1982, more than five thousand people filled the sold out Radio City Music Hall at the Rockefeller Center in New York, New York. This was to experience the remarkable film event. This was the world premiere of 'Koyaanisqatsi'.
Six years later, Reggio directed the second installment is his Qatsi trilogy. This was the 1988 American music/documentary film 'Powaqqatsi', also known as 'Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation'.
Fourteen years later, Reggio directed the third and final installment in his Qatsi trilogy. This was the 2002 American documentary/music film 'Naqoyqatsi', also known as 'Naqoyqatsi: Life as War'.
In the film's closing credits, Naqoyqatsi is also translated as "civilized violence" and "a life of killing each other". Glass returned again to compose the score.
In 2000, 'Koyaanisqatsi' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, aesthetically, or historically significant".
Reggio has been active from 1982–present.
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