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Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi are two films put together in one boxset which, respectively translate from the Hopi language as “Life Out Of Balance” and “Life in Transformation”.
In addition, the two films also look at the Northern and Southern hemispheres, respectively, telling a story through a seemingly random set of images, set to the music of Philip Glass.
To me, Koyaanisqatsi was the more powerful of the two, as while it featured some modern (for the era) cityscapes, it spent more time showing large sections of uninhabited land, and showed war taking creation and blowing it away. It left me wanting longer shots of the deserted landscapes because it makes you realise how insignificant we are compared to everything else going on in the world and I imagined myself walking around those places, wondering how long it’d take me to, say, get from the bottom of the screen to the very top.
Powaqqatsi continues in the same vein and also has many commanding shots that you just want to leap into, albeit not as many as Koyaanisqatsi and so it didn’t impress me as much. Okay, so the follow-up was all about building things and community, rather than destruction and isolation, and so it’s not the fault of the premise, but such are my thoughts about them. And when it comes to what’s onscreen, it’s a very difficult thing to quantify, but if you like the idea of visually-arresting images set to music then you owe it to yourself to get this. And do as I do – stand right in front of your TV while it plays out (mine’s 50″ in size, and is set 4ft off the ground). Don’t try and enjoy it while slumped in your armchair – you just won’t feel the benefit.
They’re a hell of a lot to take in on first viewing, hence why I had to watch them both again, and I can imagine that they would benefit from repeated viewings, leading to witnessing and experiencing new things on each subsequent viewing, since I certainly did so second time around.
Given that there’s no dialogue in these films, I think it would’ve been nice if, when the film was originally released on DVD, the distributors had arranged a subtitle track to state the names of the locations we see, since in most cases I haven’t the first idea. Obviously, this is not something that Arrow can be held to account for since they weren’t the original distributor, but I’m surprised that it wasn’t thought about on its original release.
A couple of questions, though. Firstly, there’s a third film in the series, which was included in the American boxset, but why hasn’t it been included here?
Also, in Powaqqatsi, why is everyone storing sand on their rooftops, at just before the 30-minute mark?
And note that when the deep voice at the start sings ‘Koyaanisqatsi‘, it’s the same number of syllables as ‘DVDfever‘, so try singing that next time you watch it 🙂
Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi are available in a box-set on Blu-ray and DVD, although the DVD isn’t a new release so you won’t get all the same extras and, quite frankly, if you’re going to watch these films, you need Blu-ray and a big TV!
Go to page 2 for the presentation and the extras.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.