Koyaanisqatsi

"Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi word meaning "life out of balance". It is also the title of an amazing 1982 documentary in which music and images are brilliantly juxtaposed; there is no dialogue or words spoken, save for the film's namesake ominously and repetitously chanted at its beginning and end. I have seen the entire film once in a college film class and fortuitously stumbled upon it last night on an obsure high-numbered cable channel. As it did seven years ago, it very quickly sucked me in, but this time amazed me more.

From a macro level, I think what I like most about "Koyaanisqatsi" is that it is a snap-shot of every facet of American life as it was in 1982. You can see a movie that was filmed that year or watch reruns of shows which ran during that time, but by showcasing such mundane images (such as cars driving on freeways or people scurrying in train stations) the film's director, Godfrey Reggio, allows the viewer to see how America was without its makeup. The length of time he focuses on each image, all while haunting melodies are repeating themselves over and over, gives you the opportunity to make analysis after analysis of what you are seeing. Like good sex, it is exhausting, yet wonderful.

On a micro level, however, Reggio's "snap-shot" shows us the contradictions of America as it was. It reminds me of Mark Twain's stinging observations of the West around the turn of the 20th Century, with "her pocket full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and a towel, but hide the looking-glass." He begins the film by showcasing this country's natural beauty and then rudely interrupts this montage with footage of strip-mining. Then, a family is shown sunbathing on a beach, but when the camera slowly zooms out and pans up, we see they are literally in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. The entire middle section of the film shows how our industry and innovation has actually made us anonymous pegs in a giant machine (the visual juxtapositions are blatant in presenting this assumption). But, the brilliance of the film is that the imagery is not presented in a biased way: you see for yourself what were the mundane aspects of 1982. There's nothing sugar-coating it, but there is nothing demonizing it, either.

"Koyaanisqatsi" itself is a contradiction; it is hauntingly beautiful. But, watching it last night made me wonder what images we would see if the film were reprised today. Certainly, many of the same contradictions still exist, but we have many different images, situations, and scenarios today, the complexity of which someone from 1982 would not be able to put their head around. But, it shows that, regardless of how much control we have over the things which surround us, life will always be out of balance.