Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi (DVD 2003)

Ground breaking cinematography, awe inspiring timelapses and heart moving emotions through out this filmic piece. One of the most inspirational pieces I've seen since my college days.

These films transport the viewer across city scapes and landscapes to the sound of phillip glass modern classical that intertwines with the inhebitants of each region depicted within each film that leave you with a sense of bewilderment. A must for an interesting night in with friends or family.

these films are quite simply amazing !

the score by Philip glass matches the images to perfection, as it should, because it was re-written to match the film and the film re-cut to match the score many times.

when you watch (especially the first film) you will realise that they have had such an enormous influence, since the early 1980's, how many adverts and films have "borrowed" ideas and techniques pioneered in these films.

the choice of images, subject matter and cinematography are stunning !

the subtitle/translation of the Hopi Indian words of the titles are especially poignant, koyaanisqutsi = life out of balance and this film really does make you think “oh f**k what have we done ?” but it is balanced against the most incredible images of nature.

Some of the scenes of the natural world are so extraordinary that it is challenging to remember that they were shot on this planet and not a product of computer graphics.

With a beauty that never fades, it was ground breaking in its time and has even more of a relevance today,

its not like we can move !

Read the other reviews for details. Although naturally 'dated' the films still echo the messages we all need to hear at this time of climate change and its ramifications to the planet. Every educational institution (and enlightened parent!)should have these DVDs in their library. I just wonder since the second - when will the final part of the intended trilogy be released. It ought to be.

Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi ("life out of balance") and Powaqqatsi ("life in transformation") are the first two parts of a trilogy of experimental documentaries whose titles derive from Hopi compound nouns (2002's Naqoyqatsi, or "life in war", is the third). Both feature indispensable musical contributions from minimalist composer Philip Glass.
Made in 1983, Koyaanisqatsi was shot mostly in the desert southwest USA and New York City on a tiny budget with no script. But it then attracted the support of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas and reached a much wider audience. Its techniques, merging cinematographer Ron Fricke's time-lapse shots (alternately peripatetic and hyperspeed) with Glass' reiterative music (from the meditative to the orgiastic)--as well as its ecology minded imagery--crept into the consciousness of popular culture. The influence of Koyaanisqatsi has by now become unmistakable in television advertisements, music videos and, of course, similar movies.

Dating from 1988, Powaqqatsi finds the director somewhat more directly polemical than before, with Glass's score stretching to embrace world music. Reggio reuses techniques familiar from the previous film (slow motion, time-lapse, superposition) to dramatise the effects of the so-called First World on the Third: displacement, pollution, alienation. But he spends as much time beautifully depicting what various cultures have lost--cooperative living, a sense of joy in labour and religious values--as he does confronting viewers with trains, airliners, coal cars and loneliness. What had been a more or less peaceful, slow-moving, spiritually fulfilling rural existence for these "silent" people (all we hear is music and sound effects) becomes a crowded, suffocating, accelerating industrial urban hell, from Peru to Pakistan. Reggio frames Powaqqatsi with a telling image: the Serra Pelada gold mines, where thousands of men, their clothes and skin imbued with the earth they're moving, carry wet bags up steep slopes in a Sisyphean effort to provide wealth for their employers. While Glass juxtaposes his strangely joyful music, which includes the voices of South American children, a number of these men carry one of their exhausted comrades out of the pit, his head back and arms outstretched--one more sacrifice to Caesar. Nevertheless, Reggio, a former member of the Christian Brothers, seems to maintain hope for renewal.

Anyway so reasonable price.Also rare item.Suprisingly quick shippment.But I don't have any feedback from this seller.

Quite happy. Received in good condition. Thanks. No problem whatsover with a seller or the product. Recommended.

'Koyaanisquatsi' "Koy-aa-nis-cat-see" From the Hopi Indian language which means:
'Life out of balance' - 'a way of life that calls for a different way of living.'

Koyaanisquatsi is an astonishing film, which begins by showing you
Views of nature and our beautiful planet from amazingly filmed
viewpoints. Gradually it introduces the human being into the equation
which builds in speed and intensity to an amazing sequence of distruction.
The way that the Phillip Glass music score fits in with the action
is a work of art.

'Powaqqatsi' "Pow-aa-kwat-see" Deals with Human Inequality.
Although not quite as powerful a message as 'Koyaanisquatsi'
It is also beautifilly filmed from alternative viewpoints.
Once again the Phillip Glass music score fits in with the action
with incredible precision.

The product is just what I wanted as I knew it would be and I am very grateful for it. I ha seen one of the films before and never seen anything like it. To get another like was great as at the time of ordering it I did not know it was part of a trilogy, I could not imagine ther being anything in conbnection with and then when I found there was a third I had to get that one too.

Be prepared to change your views on life.
As its says on the box, it should be hung in the Tate gallery.... I can vouch for this.