Koyaanisqatsi and Its Complex Legacy - Brows Held High

From a Hopi word meaning, "backfiring social commentary."
All third party clips are used under Fair Use.
Follow me on Twitter: / kylekallgren
Tumblr: / actuallykylekallgren
Support me on Patreon: / kkallgren

[@EpicBeard815]

I'm sorry Kyle, but I feel like you're really undercutting the film's power, and in fact your final comment shows that Reggio knew exactly the film he was making. The main difference between that iStock trailer and the actual film is just that: one is a trailer, the other is a film. Reggio had the patience to hold on each image until it was semiotically meaningless. That the film keeps cutting back and forth between zooming lights and faces of individuals is to draw attention to the fact that *we live in a world that wants us as the zooming lights, not as individuals*

[@joshstillcool]

Well said. I think there is something to be said about the Kuleshov effect that Reggio utilizes too. It's kind of glossed over here as"it's been done before," but I don't think that's giving him the credit he deserves. It's akin to analyzing Tarantino and calling his films rip-offs of previous films/genres. All that being said, I *loved* this. I hope you plan on videos about Baraka/Samsara or any Qatsi sequels.

[@kubricklynch]

Agreed.

[@c.fuscovirens]

This guy just simply never lived in nature.

[@SiliconBong]

Couldn't agree more, knew this was a shite review from the first word - point of order; the word KOYAANISQATSI can only be uttered in a sonorous voice, from a thick bush in the middle of the night, to a complete stranger.

[@kappappa]

That was my feeling too. I find the film inspirational, especially with our planet paying the price for unsustainable industrial agriculture and the idea that growth can continue forever.

[@Bauhauskiddo]

I loved the first time I watched Koyaanisqatsi. The music and the visuals made me feel a little like an alien observing humans from afar. I didn't see it like a documentary or a condemnation of anything, just a... documentation, really. This is Earth. This is nature and humans and cities and people. I still listen to the soundtrack every now and then, just because I feel it is beautiful.

[@leischutte9179]

I also loved it the first time I saw it and my best friend hated it- she told me that someone just made it to ‘feel smart,’ I still disagree with that statement. I think it sends a very clear message

[@BR-jt6ny]

There are very few works of art (if any) that are truly original. I would warn against asking "is it original" because you will always be disappointed. What you have to ask yourself is "is it a good work of art, is it done well?" I still think Koyaanisqatsi is really quite good. And I have to say I really love Philip Glass' score.

[@KyleKallgrenBHH]

Yeah, I know.

[@eggnogthespacecadet3392]

The fact that Reggio’s imagery has been reappropriated in a neoliberal context says more about neoliberalism than Reggio’s imagery

[@joelfooxiangjie]

I disagree. It isn't a damnation of globalization, as you say. The entire film is a meditative question on the meaning of civilization itself. We've built enormous complex structures at every level of reality - from the microchip to an entire city. Why? Especially since, as the film draws to a close, we see scenes of decay and old age. Death and destruction seem to be the inevitable conclusion to the great artifacts that we construct, like a rocket striving to reach the heavens only to shatter into falling debris. Notice how he closes the film with cave paintings of block men standing around a central figure/object. I interpret the meaning of Koyaanisqatsi as defining the act of civilization as a striving out of the natural order of the world. Reggio asks us to question this.

[@MaryJaneHancock]

And, covid19 shutsvit all down. Globally.

[@joshuapk9808]

This was exactly what I thought the first time I saw this many years ago...

[@EnvyOmicron]

So, what you're saying is, Koyaanisqatsi wants us all to return to monke?

[@santeri2790]

@@EnvyOmicron I cant speak for what the movie wants or doesnt want us to do, but that definitely wasnt my takeaway from it, though i could see people to whom that idea appeals taking that as its message. To me the idea of a life out of balance, with the shots of the people on the street showing their facial expressions... most of them didn't seem happy, within the context of the film the larger machinations of our current society didn't seem humane. A life out of balance doesnt mean that the only way to live well is to return to pre-technological times. But ecologically speaking, we are quite clearly out of balance, when it comes to the nine earth system processes and their boundaries. We have exceeded at least 4 of those already (climate change, biodiversity, land-system change, and biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus imbalance)). A growth-based (capitalist or state capitalist or state socialist, the earth system doesn't care) economy and political order can't be ecologically sustainable - balanced. This promethean tragedy is reflected in the end of the movie in the last shot - the rocket falls apart and comes back to the ground, blinded by hubris. The film tries to say that similarly our political economy (I guess specifically our quest for ever-more efficient technology which is used for more growth, more use of natural resources, more emissions) is blinded by that hubris, which will backfire sooner or later. The processes that accelerate our lives alienate us from our humanity despite the great conveniences they give, and as we currently use our technology and build our cities etc, is unsustainable. Back to monkey is a simplistic answer to that and showcases a Thatcherian TINA or a Fukuyama-like sentiment that liberal capitalism is the best we can get. I don't agree that the film necessarily falls into that trap, but yeah it doesn't offer a clear way out. But a diagnosis is already a step towards solutions, and imo the film diagnoses societal problems really effectively, though not sufficiently.

[@ObamaTron]

To me the movie is an observation about the nature of humanity. We collectively believe in a sort of idealism, constantly setting unrealistic goals. That is why life is out of balance. Humanity aspires to create its own ideal world, but this struggle itself is what causes imbalance. The end scene represents human efforts crumbling to reality.

[@nope1018]

Philip Glass is a goddamn genius.

[@hustler3of4culture3]

I first saw this as a teenager, in the theater, as a first run film, and have seen it performed live to the movie by Philip Glass. Koyaanisqatsi has always been a warning. Not a celebration.

[@elasiduo108]

I think Kyle, that your analysis is too focused in "technical aspects" and not in "thematic aspects". Your last comment, I think, it is completely absurd in the context of the structure of the movie, which starts in "nature", and then, it moves to show technology, and is going in a crescendo of speed and frenetic music, culminating in "The Grid", which is a maddening and frenetic sequence which can be very powerful. But then, it comes the last sequence, "Prophecies", which slows down everything (including the music) and shows in detail the point you just seem to think applied to a single sequence: There is actual people down there in the frenzy, living lives, looking miserable, bored, uncomfortable, etc. It's not just a guy missing the elevator. There are riots in the streets, sadness, pollution, etc. Reggio is not only making the point with the scene you described, the whole last sequence is about that. I think the point of the movie is far from being an ode to Neoliberalism as you put it, unless you focus just in the frenzy of the most famous sequence which I think works not because it has revolutionary cinematic techniques per se, but because it builds from a slow crescendo into a frenetic and seemingly endless sequence. I actually believe Reggio when he says he feels the movie doesn't have an anvillicious message. I think the movie is contrasting the rhythm of human life and the speed in which society seems to be moving, making it (dah) out of balance.

[@cyanmanta]

I got the chance to see this movie in Pittsburgh with the music performed live by Philip Glass' ensemble. It gives a very different impression when you realize that the mechanical sound of a minimalist score is being produced by real people, right before your eyes. It's almost ironic.

[@clancydr7211]

I feel a similar tension between the efficiency of the modern world and the humanity of individuals every time I visit New York City. I love it there, make no mistake. But I find myself deliberately reminding myself to notice people's faces, and realize that each and every one of them is living their own complex, dramatic, and rich life that I will never know. That I am a background character in the movie about their lives too. The Dictionary of Obscure sorrows has a word for this feeling. Sonder. And I couldn't help but be reminded of it as Kyle made his last point about the movie.

[@irishgn08]

David Clancy Only slightly related, but Sonderlust is a great album. Every Kishi Bashi album seems to put my whole life in a new perspective -- and that's just from the titles, too.

[@ThePa1riot]

David Clancy Well as the video and the movie point out, that's life. We're all the main characters of our own stories and the background or supporting characters of other people's stories. I think that's wonderful.

[@JaesadaSrisuk]

David Clancy I actually think that I appreciate the diversity and individuality of every person on earth when I'm in NYC or another major city like that. Here in the suburbs, people are more isolated from one another and there's far less of a sense of community because people go to work in their own cars and come straight home, without ever seeing anyone who isn't part of their work or home life. At least in a bustling metropolis like New York City, you actually see the endless sea of humanity, whereas you can go entire days in the suburbs or the country without seeing a stranger at all.

[@digamejh]

I love people-watching in New York.

[@bean3550]

There's this term called Sonder. The idea is it's when you realize every other being on the planet has a life and experience just as complex as yours. There is no protagonist and flat side characters. This video brings it to mind

[@SecondOpinionMan]

This is a movie I've not watched once, but I've listened to the score hundreds of times. Philip Glass' work here is nothing short of brilliant.

[@francofx]

You should watch it. Glass composed the music the movie on his mind.

[@21Arrozito]

You didn't mention the final scene though, the climax. How can it be a text of neoliberalism while playing it's theme song and showing a rocket blow up and fall from the sky in flames like Icarus? The movie builds up with a sort of dazzling frenetic pace of systems, grids, tech, and people flowing through it, then the movie shows it all crashing down accompanied the words of ancient elders warning us about this very thing. You can only see it as a neoliberal text if you ignore the last scene.

[@timoverton1250]

Wait... You're saying that Madonna doesn't produce Satanic, futurist dirges?

[@bul13ts]

[Nods appreciatively, and offers gentle golf clap]

[@boxorak]

Tim Overton That depends. Do you mean that in the "her music sucks" sense or the "new media is evil" sense?

[@timoverton1250]

Mainly the 2nd, but like...ironically.

[@TankTaur]

When I watch Koyaanisqatsi, I like to view it as a documentary made by aliens, or maybe by the robots that succeed us, after we are gone. It's a documentary about human society, and the soundtrack is the narrator's voice, bleeping and droning in a language we cannot understand. But try to understand it, try to put your mind there and see humans from a non-human lens, and it becomes quite a fascinating experience.

[@TheEndergun]

YOU GAVE KOYAANISQATI A 10 BUT GAVE DAMN A... woops, wrong channel.

[@sudevsen]

TheEndergun kyletany browtano

[@user-qb3jg8ep9t]

Fuckthony offtano

[@grahamkristensen9301]

Oldthany Joketano

[@StanleyWithFriends]

You melon worshipper

[@starchington]

TheEndergun what channel are you referencing?

[@tsundoku5733]

"Koyaanisiqatsi, intentionally or not, is one of the greatest texts of neo-liberalism in the last half century." That sounds like something you impose onto the film, after "normalizing" what it shows.

[@libertyAHV]

No it did not invent the genre of montage film. I'm not sure it was ever meant to be revolutionary except in it's content

[@SamiShah2004]

I believe this film is a perfect example of what cinematography and music (when correlated) can truly achieve. Utilizing only two basic art forms to create expression, music and visual aesthetic. Zero dialogue is used, only artistic immersion is used to convey its point. That is what I believe to be the genius of it; saying so much yet never speaking. It would be quite hard for any artist to do something like what Reggio did. Perfect example of "Show, don't tell."

[@modianoification]

this movie is about the world getting faster and faster.But how fast it can go?Can we keep accelerating forever?Author answer this question in the last scene where rocket keeps accelerating and than explodes in the sky

[@WTFG78]

When describing the film to friends who haven't seen it, I sometimes call it "Establishing Shots: The Motion Picture", which may seem cruel, but it gives them the best frame of reference as to what the movie is- and how we are used to its individual shots by now. Great work on this one. :)

[@Demolitiondude]

I think when it's about our machinery and nature, it's damning. But when people are in frame, it's everyday life. Like the guy missing the elevator, once people are thrown into frame, the context changed.

[@stairwayunicorn4861]

You do realize now that you need to follow this with The Quiet Earth

[@tritisan]

I don’t understand why this film isn’t talked about more. It features one of the most astonishingly original endings.

[@dillongstaff5625]

In nearly 60 years of cinema watching,koyaanisquatsi is the only film i saw where I was the only person in the cinema...then a gigantic cinema before it was split up to a Multiplex.I bunked off work to see it as it was only shown for one day in Reading.Love to see it again on the big screen...alone.

[@robertcornhole5197]

Funny, I just saw Koyaanisqatsi for the first time (it moved me to tears), but I couldn't help but think about another little flick that came out the same year...called Blade Runner. Those city shots, the light of sunset playing off of the office skyscrapers, crushingly immense but achingly gorgeous. That both movies are depicting forces of modernity and capital accelerating towards dystopia...but end up creating an *aesthetic* so compelling it makes people yearn for dystopia.

[@kienesel7]

Aw was hoping for a mention of Samsara. Then again, theres actually a fair amount of movies like this.

[@Magpie1701]

Baraka, Samsara and the Qatsi trilogy. What am I missing?

[@myrrhfishify7743]

Many of your observations are true and revealing. Even though some of the imagery ideas were seen before, Koyaanisqatsi brought them together into one thought. Yeah, Reggio's message is clear in the first 10 minutes. Sure. But this was as much a piece of visual and aural art as an ongoing conversation about human life and development. It was profound when it came out. I saw it performed with Philip Glass conducting a live orchestra. One of my great memories.

[@spencerraney4979]

I agree with the other posters that what works about the film is that contrast between the quiet, meditative pieces and nature scenes in the beginning, and the sensory overload and Timelapse scenes at the end. The reason why it doesn’t quite resonate, is that you see the natural world and dilapidated city scapes set to a haunting, brooding score, and then you get to The Grid, and it just builds up speed and gets brighter and brighter, while Glass’s soundtrack build to a almost euphoric climax. Of course people in the modern, urban world would feel more positively than negatively about it when documented in such a manner.

[@Marconius6]

I was going to write a comment about how cities being gridlike is an American thing, and how European cities are far more messy... but I was wrong. It feels that way, from the ground level, and yeah it's a bit more messy, but I checked multiple cities on satellite from Tokyo to Budapest to Paris, and they're all big grids when you look from high up enough.

[@LtHavoc1983]

That is because Tokyo, Paris and Budapest are relative modern cities. I once saw an old painting of the city of Hannover here in Niedersachsen, Germany, in a museum, from the 16th century and it looked WAY different then it looks today. Many of the old cities got destroyed during WWII and had to be rebuild, therefor, they became grid like, but that was not always the case. Best example would be the city of Algier, its a maze of streets and structures, some of them going back centuries.

[@Marconius6]

I'm assuming you mean Algiers, in Algeria? I looked that up, it's still pretty gridlike. Again, not like New York, but I'd say it's comparable to Paris or Budapest. I also thought to look up Jerusalem, but that has a pretty defined structure too. Apropos of that I checked Cairo too, same thing. Besides, New York never got destroyed, and it's a few centuries old, so I don't think that argument really holds up. I really just think modern cities ALL tend towards it, because yeah, it is way more efficient; it probably couldn't really be any other way. But as you say, it was no doubt different back in the 16th century, so it's not like cities have always been grids either.

[@LtHavoc1983]

Well, New York and DC both got planned that way from the very beginning, most of the other cities evovled that grid like structure later on because, well its more efficient that way, no city stays the same. But on ye olden days, the church was normally the center of the town/city and then everything settled around it creating rounded cities, that where also easy to defend with walls. That then changed once fortifications became more square like. you can often see this in old town district's on how it roughly looked like way back when, but there are only a few places that are still like that due to how modern traffic and such changed the layout of almost every city and town on the globe.

[@Marconius6]

In general old cities just kinda... connected important stuff with direct roads and things got built between those, I think. Look up a map of ancient Rome, it's kind of a mess! www.the-colosseum.net/NEWTEST/images/maps/oldromemap.jpg

[@therecordingservice5075]

I'm sorry for this reviewer! He seems to have totally missed the point of this movie! It was not trying to be the first movie to ever have time-lapse city shots. (Though it actually was the first to use this time lapse effect and use these shots of cities without drawing attention to a certain character. All the "counter examples" this reviewer offers are missing either the time-lapse or characterless aspect.) This movie is a commentary on nature, life and death. The director spent his teens and twenties in a Catholic mystical order, fasting and living out a vow of silence. In his thirties, God called him to be a teacher of children and he created programs to prevent kids from joining gangs. In his fifties, he felt called to make this movie. Philip Glass says that Koyaanisqatsi is a movie for children, which is why young people tend to enjoy it more than adults. When Godfrey asked Philip Glass to help with the score, the Dalai Lama was staying at Philip's apartment. Oddly enough, Tibetan Buddhism and Hopi religion are more similar to each other than they are to any other religion. I asked Philip Glass about Godfrey when I talked to him a few months ago in Tallahassee. He told me that he believes Godfrey can see the future. Godfrey lives with the Hopi Indians today. Philip Glass travels to the Hopi land for his spiritual instruction. Obviously, the reviewer is ignorant of this film's strong spiritual message. The title is a Hopi word! He could have at least researched the only word in the whole movie! The Hopi believe that all technological societies are doomed. They were an offshoot of the tribe that ultimately became the Anasazi. They believed the Anasazi were doomed because their cosmopolitanism would separate them from their spiritual life. It did turn out that the Hopi have outlasted the Anasazi by centuries. Hundreds of years ago, the Hopi received a prophecy that God would melt the Northern ice caps when he wanted to cleanse this world (the 4th world). This prophecy and others like it lead the Hopi, and Godfrey, to believe that our world is near its end. Godfrey made this trilogy of movies as a way of communicating the impending apocalypse.

[@Tuckerscreator]

That seems like the worst way to communicate an impending disaster. "I've received a vision that this world is going to be destroyed, so I will warn people by making a movie with absolutely no words instead of trying to prove the veracity of this prophecy and raising awareness or such."

[@Frredster]

Sorry for what? The reviewer isn't saying Koyaanisqatsi is the first movie EVER to do these things (he even points that out in the video! Did you watch it?). You seem to have missed the point of the review.

[@doobleebidoo2721]

"Hundreds of years ago, the Hopi received a prophecy that God would melt the Northern ice caps when he wanted to cleanse this world (the 4th world)." That is... interesting.

[@talideon]

I think most of the useful observations on this video can be summed up by looking at the letter A. Why A? Because capitals represent an older form for the alphabet, and if you flip it over, you see its origin: ∀. And if you think that looks a lot like a cow, you're right: in the Phoenician abjad, they used rebuses for the shapes of letters, and their word for "ox" was "ʾalp", and because of that, it came to represent the sound /a/ in Greek, and later made its way to us. As a cliché. Because all even vaguely original successful ideas become clichés. Koyaanisqatsi is an assemblage of clichés that is itself an original work, which has, itself, become a cliché. Criticising something because it borrowed or was borrowed from isn't useful criticism. It's like criticising the Phoenicians for coming up with the letter that became A, either because it built in previous Egyptian work, or because people made heavy use of it subsequently.

[@TheGyroBarqusShow]

Weird thing, i found it fascinating and couldn't look away, just a pure cinematic experience. The power of images.

[@MaryJaneHancock]

And , in glides Covid19. Completely upending daily life.

[@andrewhillis9544]

THE ONLY THING KOYAANISQATSI SUCCEEDED IN DOING TO ME WAS HYPNOTISING ME TO THE POINT WHERE I CAN'T EVEN FUNCTION AS A HUMAN BEING ! ! ! I WONDER IF ANY SUBLIMINALS WERE DELIBERATELY ENCODED INTO THIS FILM ? ? ?

[@hughiedavies6069]

The comparisons to other films are ridiculous, koyaanisquaatsi said more than anything before through just imagery and music. And Geoffrey Reggio continues to make beautiful films in the same way. Samsara for example and Baracka were made in the same manner. Beautiful but tragic and no dialogue. Koyaanisquaatsi is a bit dated now but it blew me away when I first saw it around 30 years ago

[@Icebears4ever]

Wow... So happy I stumbled across this channel. Really good analysis / retrospective on one of my favorite films.

[@stephenievee1126]

What everybody everywhere seems to have forgotten or deliberately does not want to see, is, that Humanity is not different to or separate from nature. We are part of nature and we are nothing more than nature. Same as an asteroid crashing down on earth, whiping out all life, or a planet colliding with another planet. In our grandious delusion we think we are different and superiour to nature. We are not. Everything we do, is nothing but an act of nature on itself. Nature provided the means for our evolution. And if we destroy nature or nature destroys humanity in the end does not matter, for it is always part of the dance nature plays with itself.

[@TueSorensen]

I have to disagree vehemently. You're thinking very reductively here. And missing the larger perspectives.

[@lddevo88]

I haven't clicked on a BHH video faster.

[@amilyndreams]

Very much disagree with your reading of it but you make good points. I've always felt at odds with the elitism that some slap onto the mindset of this film. It feels distinctly human, and I feel that the point is almost to get so far away from a human viewpoint of film as a medium and circle back around to it somehow. Great video!

[@TheGyroBarqusShow]

Exactly, as an artist myself i always try to be present in any situation so i can feel how other people feel

[@francofx]

This movie is on my top 3. I've watched it like 50 times or so.

[@Amy.B]

Beautiful film and wonderful soundtrack.

[@benh9688]

Do you not think the fact that the subject matter of the movie is also the substance of Shutterstock works as one of the greatest ironies the movie has to state; that our own self engineered destruction is not only plainly before us, but that we've catalogued it as benign generic video clips for the masses and yet we still can't see it? Stock-destruction, in a way. We've turned our impending doom into something so trivial we don't even see it anymore - which is a kind of self serving poetic justice. For me this serves to emphasise our blindness as a society, a species even, and our frequent underestimation of that blindness.

[@backwardsnomad4918]

I disagree that the film is boring. Even if you only view the film as pastiche, it's still emotional and compelling watch. Would it be lessened without Glass' score? Sure but you could say that about most films.

[@edible0pig]

This was brilliant. Kyle, you are brilliant.

[@amalgamdesign3220]

The last part of the video made me think of Jan Gehl. He's a Danish architect who criticizes how we construct the modern city and the emphasis of the "Skyline", how the city is viewed from afar looking at houses that people typically don't live in. When you build towers of glass and concrete the view from the street is often neglected and the result is boring corridors where you never twist you neck upwards and see the brilliant glass structures. Instead of building cities with a skyline he proposes that we build cities with an "Eyeline": cities where there are intersting stuff at the street level with places for people to sit and do things, more intimate cities, cities for normal everyday stories.

[@StatsJedi]

There's ten minutes gone forever.

[@blakgumshoo]

The ONLY reason I even knew about this film was because I watch scrubs and the title theme played during Janitor's evil eye, which led me to look up what the song was, which led me to discovering this film.

[@killmeade]

I really liked this. Great job.

[@AlexWillging]

I'm over the moon that you reviewed this film! Never would have considered what its actual impact on cinema's become.

[@lgbs727]

This is really something I wish I saw more on the internet. There are a million channels that praises great films and another million that criticize bad ones line by line, but only a few initiatives like Scout Tafoya's "The Unloved" series that attempts to re-analyze more and analyze less. Please make more of these videos, this is one of my favorites now!

[@abibas198]

you know, watching the movie and listening to that masterpiece, every time I think about mankind in general: The post-industrial society. Will humanity come to some kind of unified method of management, as according to Fukuyama? High technologies. Will they replace our lifestyle and ourselves? Population and urbanization limits. Ecology. How we replace our wars? How will the concept of war change? Will people have the need of all of it? The questions of life and death. Trans and post humanism. Isn't it all an utopia? Are we ready for all that??... what is next, what is the next goal, where to develop further, space exploration, planet colonization, interest in expanding the knowable, literally everything comes to mind....the ending always make me cry thinking of all the crap happened with humanity for decades and centuries and still happening to reach nowdays. The rocket leaving our home planet, heading into the unknown and inexorably exploding and falling back (the music is sensational, so many different vibes, it s just fantastic, with so strong energy)

[@saul_guudman]

"how can it be wrong if it works so well?" Atom bombs work well for the purpose they are built to perform, no?

[@ttthecat]

Excellent analysis as usual!

[@George_M_]

You can only see it with the soundtrack played live, or at least in a theater in general, to keep you from pausing or skipping. It's like Kubrick. You have to commit. The problem is, you and most people are too busy to slow down and watch it.

[@timlastname8579]

This showed me a new perspective on the movie I hadn't considered in that way yet. Thank you for your insight!

[@roderickrayrutledge2740]

Technology equals destruction.

[@sudevsen]

This movie is like a Brian Eno ambiemt record for the eyes.

[@nerdommeetsboy]

One of my favourite films ever made

[@ernestoA2]

this video essay is so good, that I have now watched it 4 times

[@corhydron111]

I think M.I.A. used the mining footage parts in her Go Off music video. The video is basically a teapot version of Koyaaniqats, has no visile people in it and consists of mining explosions only.

[@MisterHolaMan]

Koyaanisqatsi changed my life

[@andrewhillis9544]

In WHAT Or WHICH Ways ? ? ?

[@nyarlotep]

Hey Kyle, I wonder what are your thoughts on Baraka (1992) since its a film very similar in style to the qatsi trilogy.

[@speeta]

2:40 it's worth noting that quite a lot of the original Koyaanisqatsi film consists of stock footage. Some of it is archival NASA and military footage, some of it is slick photography used to sell the cinematography talent to producers, but is still footage repurposed for this film.

[@InARoundaboutWay]

'Review out of balance'. Not seeing the wood for the trees, doesn't go far enough to describe it.

[@Paolo8772]

Remember that Godfrey Reggio didn't even want the movie to even have a name.

[@libertyAHV]

I back to this movie over and over. It is a default movie to be put on while heading to sleep.

[@sudevsen]

The ending of Planet Earth 2 is the next step from the Koyanakatsqui

[@grendelum]

the first james burke “connections” episode flows really well after koyaanisqatsi...

[@TheAtoZReviewBlog]

No one structures a video-essay better than you.

[@LaNoLaCola]

Beyond the Frame z No one talks like Kallgren, Analyze like Kallgren, Leaves you craving for more content like Kallgren. And there's no one else with such intelligence, My hat's off to you Kallgren!

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

Using the Gaston song really makes me wonder if this is a veiled insult.

[@LaNoLaCola]

I'm Very Angry It's Not Butter!! No I was being genuine

[@KorAnos1]

Though, to be fair, it's a tie with many great content creators.

[@caitlinerickson7355]

I was literally just thinking, "I wonder when the next BHH will be, and then, as if by magic (or coincidence) it appeared.

[@Vastlyright]

KOYAANISQATSI was a movie best watched while stoned. Very very stoned.

[@EddieMush]

That was Francis Ford Coppola getting on that elevator btw

[@dungeon8929]

Ok this was mind bending... I literally tabbed out of cities as it was shown in the video xD

[@CrisWhetstone]

Ummm....that iStock footage didn't exist when Reggio made the movie. You're confirming some of Reggio's message by pointing out that images made famous by Koyaanisqatsi are mass market consumables on the internet.

[@jcaldu1]

Thank you, the movie makes more sense to me now. Good point mentioning Ziga Vertov´s Man with a movie camera.

[@lutello3012]

Have two laserdisc copies of this, love it as an epic late 70s early 80s stock footage time capsule at the vary least.

[@CourtneyCoulson]

This reminds me a bit of Karl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, a lot of people misinterpret his meaning, yes we are tiny creatures on tiny islands on a tiny planet in an infinite universe, but that doesn't make us insignificant, if anything it's just the opposite.

[@gabe_s_videos]

I don't know if I had anything to do with this, but I'm REALLY glad you're not mumbling any more Kyle. Your commentary sounds much more precise and articulate.

[@JokeOrg]

My brows are so high right now that they are melting with my hair line

[@speeta]

9:19 that looks like Francis Ford Coppola in the caramel jacket boarding the elevator in the lobby of one of the World Trade Center towers.

[@stormydragon2668]

Isn't being out of balance to some extent a necessary precondition of life? The only time an organism ever reaches equilibrium with its environment is after it's died.

[@saul_guudman]

so are plants out of balance with their environment? or are they their environment? Many plants and animals can only survive through symbiotic relationships, so balance is at the core to their survival. Not all humans work against the environment that they fundamentally require to survive, there are indigenous tribes that still have harmonious and symbiotic relationships with the earth still today. But what is unbalanced is the abuse of the natural world that we all need to survive that is simply driven by the greed for money. This may seem somewhat ironic as I write on KZbin from a MacBook, yet the paradox exists that I am able to learn of my own detachment through the use of technology. I never would have considered the phrase from Alan Watts “You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself" if not for KZbin

[@longmayurun58]

A masterpiece.

[@harveybeaver9731]

I remember watching a version of Kooyanisqatsi which had the original and flipped versions of the film's shown side by side in a single screw. The movie was very surreal.

[@xTheUnderscorex]

Alternate title: "The Industrial Revolution And Its Consequences Have Been A ______ For The Human Race"

[@bitnev]

Oh, i waited for it.

[@johnyzero2000]

Interesting and visually stunning film, but I like having electricity, gas, industry, cars, and modern technology. Keep in mind that the good old days were not so good everything was a chore to do and the life expectancy was very short.

[@hotelmario510]

enjoy dying of climate plague, john

[@hotelmario510]

well...don't say i didn't warn you

[@johnyzero2000]

@@hotelmario510 Well little lady that is my business.

[@teptime]

It's a film of tremendous power when seen on a big screen, I attended the west coast premier, and it floored me. It is correct, however, to note that its stylization and concept are not at all groundbreaking...a similar mien was presented at least as early as 1929 with THE CROWD, and there's plenty of recall to METROPOLIS as well. Still and all, it's a highly important work that shouldn't be minimized.

[@altohippiegabber]

years ago i saw this movie in the best way possible: projected onto a wall while being under the influence of mushrooms

[@JimFaindel]

Only recently did I watch this movie, years after first watching this video. I did not truly understand what I was getting into until the spiraling debree in the sky returned to its original shape, a reverse shot of a space-shuttle launching and exploding, shown again during the finale. That realization, accompanied by the music and followed by the shots of those people, somehow felt heart-breaking in the most natural and inevitable way possible. And I loved it. Now, the entire movie did not manage to hook me quite like that instant again until the ending words flashed and the rocket scene was echoed, but the experience of those fleeting minutes were well worth the watch.

[@JimFaindel]

Also, I just wish someone, somewhere, however many years it takes for another pair of human eyes to read these words, to know that I found Koyaanisqatsi after searching for a small piece of its soundtrack that was used in a 9 years old my little pony meme anthology video, which I remembered nostalgically after finding out the beloved internet media critic Jenny Nicholson was part of the team behind the parody series friendship is witchcraft, thus sending me back through the fandom's old hits before finally landing upon those precious few seconds that had gone way over my head back in highschool. Truly, we live life out of balance.

[@ItsTheFizz]

Personally, I find Baraka as more affecting...

[@ItsTheFizz]

The documentary I mean... Not the Mortal Kombat character...

[@sudevsen]

Michael Scally yes. Top 5 black presidents easily

[@irishgn08]

Michael Scally I'm partial to the poet, personally.

[@elltell1990]

Hey Fizz! Didn't know that AEPodcast's resident photoshopper was a Kyle Kallgren fan! Awesome!

[@themarkandrus]

I always thought Baraka was a nice counter argument to Koyanisqatsi. Mostly accomplished by slowing down the pictures by just a bit.

[@JustAMacGuffin]

This makes my insomnia worth it.

[@geneirai]

bravo kyle, bravo

[@VertigoDefinitivo]

Niiice. "Tron" is another movie that used that sped up effect in the opening and closing shots of the city. The same feeling is evoked within the digital world when we are shown the light cycles and the glowing buildings.

[@manipunation]

You made a comment about "our incredible efficiency". I am reminded of Buckminster Fuller's comment about cities (New York being a prime example). They are almost DESIGNED to be as wasteful of energy as possible. Huge thin steel buildings sticking up into the sky, this is how a heat sink is designed (like in a personal computer). So don't tell me about how efficient our grid-based lifestyle is. If a rectangular grid was the most efficient way of organizing, you would find these grids in nature but in general you don't.

[@mossadon]

WORD !

[@doobleebidoo2721]

That's kinda true, not really in a civilization sense but more in a "city engineer" sense. For example, some road plans just aren't the most efficient. After all, sometimes there's lots of traffic simply because of bad road design.

[@obliquefrontline9415]

Good work kyle. This is the kind of thing i meant.

[@WebertHest]

Well, the whole odious idea of the noble savage does rear its head from time to time. The -quatsi trilogy is but another iteration.

[@balrogdahomie]

I love watching these but I constantly feel like I’m supposed to already know about these things when I’ve never been in a film class in my life. I’ve never heard of this movie before, but the narrator talks about it like it’s an incredibly famous movie

[@blahgolem7479]

kyle it is 2 in the morning what are you doing

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

Watch out for the Hash-Slinging Slasher.

[@tatehildyard5332]

The Sass-Bringing Hasher?

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

The _Hash-Slinging Slasher_...

[@tatehildyard5332]

"The sash ringing, the trash ringing, singing, the flash springing, ringing the, the the crash dinging.... duh."

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

Yes. The Hash-Slinging Slasher. *But* , most people just call him the Ha-- _ACKKK_ ... because that's all they have time to say before he... *GETS 'EM* .