Comments on: A cinematic treasure: Reggio’s Qatsi-trilogy

By: Dave Jackson

Dave Jackson — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:06:36 +0000

I have to disagree with ‘Luddite’. What elevates this film out of clever entertainment and places it squarely on the level of good art, is this: Reggio makes you think, comment, change your view, re-evaluate your precepts. Koyaanisqatsi has the clout to get you off your wishbone and do something different. It’s the most powerful indictment of man’s self-destruction through greed that I have ever seen. It’s not comfortable art; it’s ugly, but pure and raw, breaking forcefully through the weak white noise of political and social exhortations to re-use our bath water. Every scientist, engineer, advertising executive and politician should be exposed to this message. Frequently.
I’ve not seen the rest of the trilogy and am curious to see how Reggio can add to this message without diluting it.
I was last moved to this extent when ‘Africa Addio’ was screened in the 60′s. We applied no new learnings from that film; I fear our greed is too entrenched to expect new policies based on this one. Copenhagen? Nice little junket.

By: Nico

Nico — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:48:53 +0000

Thank you Bret,
The trilogy is a true treasure.

I also enjoyed Ron Fricke’s other work like Baraka and I am eagerly awaiting the release of Samsara next year.

By: Bert

Bert — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:16:48 +0000

Erik – Thank you. I’m glad that you find this piece meaningful and useful. If you are interested in Deleuze and film, you probably know his two profound books on cinema, besides which the secondary literature on his work is growing. I have published a few academic papers on his film-philosophy, too, including one in the SA Journal of Art History, about 2 years ago, which was titled something like “Beyond Kierkegaard’s aesthetic and ethical models for art” (if my memory serves me right).
Eriferi – A perspicaceous remark, about Reggio and the eco-crisis. It is spot-on. In fact, I have referred some of my students to especially the first one of the trilogy for that reason. And the scene in the mine at the beginning of Powaqatsi is very powerful indeed – Glass’s music makes it all the more poignant, in particular the sequence where some of the workers carry the (presumably) injured one up the slopes as if he is lying on a cross (with its obvious religious reference, but this time in relation to the god of capital, to whom this poor soul has been sacrificed).
Jan – I hope you can get hold of them – you will probably have to order them. A handy website for this is boxoffice.com
Luddite (Premesh?) – you underestimate film, despite your luddite bias against images. Do you know Benjamin’s essay on ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’? You should read it again.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:08:19 +0000

Thank you for this. It peaked my interest and I shall try to get to see these films.

By: Eriferi

Eriferi — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:59:14 +0000

@ Bert. Do you think that a movie like Koyaanisqatsi could play a role in spreading awareness of the global eco-crisis? If your students were as receptive to it as you say, is it not partly because the nature images, followed by the ones of city life, can only have that kind of impact because of their awareness that the humans shown in those impersonal cities are like a virus destroying nature? I doubt whether audiences would have reacted to the film in this way when it first came out in the 1980′s. When I first saw it, I was very emotional, and after watching the second one (Powwaqatsi) immediately afterwards, I could not help crying during the first long scene of the mine workers carrying those bags up a steep slope – and all that suffering for the sake of profit. Godfrey Reggio should be given a Nobel Prize for bringing these images to audiences. It is just a pity that so few people ever see these movies.

By: Luddite

Luddite — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:38:20 +0000

Bert
I do admire you as a philosopher but will have to agree to disagree with you as to the artistic merit of film. I am afraid I see no real merit in it at all.

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:18:20 +0000

I am amazed that this commentary on Reggio’s work has drawn such little attention. Could it be a silent comment on just how limited the spectrum of interests of average thoughtleader readers really is? Bert has done the Qatsi movies justice in this analysis, brief as it may be. As a Norwegian student of film, it is invaluable to me, the more so in light of the references to Deleuze. Thanks Bert – keep them coming. Not many people provide such thought-provoking stuff as you do.