The article is a moving tribute to the power of Reggio's vision and the brilliance of Glass' score.
I was living in Santa Fe in the '70s and was at that first screening, it was the world premier, at the Lensic Theater. I still have the stub. I was there because Godfrey Reggio came into the sandwich shop I was a partner in and because I was friends of friends of some of the guys on the camera crews shooting footage in the Southwest and working with Alton.
I recall it as a pivotal moment of my 22 year old life. It was like nothing I'd experienced. The lack of 'anything happening' lasted a few minutes. But I recall starting to 'get' the symbolism and the narrative the images convey. Much like the author I was floored by the music. I was a prog rock fan with an appreciation for classical music. Well, Beethoven at least, so the concept of a long form piece was engaging. The epic sweep of the imagery and music gripped me and held my attention throughout. Since then many of those images have come to mind at various times. And the final sequence of the Saturn V leaving the launch pad in slow motion coupled with the beautiful, haunting score to it blew me away in the moment and I can still recall its impact now.
Koyaanisqatsi is a rare work of art. The article brings me hope. The world is quite fucked up right now and while it's completely possible for us, all of us, to change things to mitigate the situations there is little cause to believe that will actually happen. Then I come across someone articulating such a profound resonance with a work actually closer to 50 years old and it sparks that hope.
About 10 years ago I went to a lecture in Santa Fe by Reggio where he talked about the movie, screened it, and answered questions after. 10 years before that I saw Glass perform the music in Albuquerque with his orchestra while the movie played on a big screen above. At that point I had watched the movie perhaps 100 times. To say I am a huge fan is an understatement.
The overwhelming impression I got from Reggio and Glass was that they didn't so much create the experience as give birth to it. Of course they both intended to create something great, but I think the movie's success as a cultural artifact exceeded their wildest expectations.
There are very few movies I care to watch more than once. There are even fewer that will still be watched and studied 10,000 years from now (assuming we survive that long). Koyaanisqatsi is one of them.
The movie is powerful enough and the subject relevant enough to still resonate with the younger generation. I do wonder, however, if the older the movie gets, the more distant the imagery from the seventies might intuitively appear to a young viewer. This led me to think about how the movie would look if (re)made today. I keep getting ideas for recent footage / subjects which would work in place of the original shots, whatever the merit of such an undertaking might be.
I was living in Santa Fe in the '70s and was at that first screening, it was the world premier, at the Lensic Theater. I still have the stub. I was there because Godfrey Reggio came into the sandwich shop I was a partner in and because I was friends of friends of some of the guys on the camera crews shooting footage in the Southwest and working with Alton.
I recall it as a pivotal moment of my 22 year old life. It was like nothing I'd experienced. The lack of 'anything happening' lasted a few minutes. But I recall starting to 'get' the symbolism and the narrative the images convey. Much like the author I was floored by the music. I was a prog rock fan with an appreciation for classical music. Well, Beethoven at least, so the concept of a long form piece was engaging. The epic sweep of the imagery and music gripped me and held my attention throughout. Since then many of those images have come to mind at various times. And the final sequence of the Saturn V leaving the launch pad in slow motion coupled with the beautiful, haunting score to it blew me away in the moment and I can still recall its impact now.
Koyaanisqatsi is a rare work of art. The article brings me hope. The world is quite fucked up right now and while it's completely possible for us, all of us, to change things to mitigate the situations there is little cause to believe that will actually happen. Then I come across someone articulating such a profound resonance with a work actually closer to 50 years old and it sparks that hope.