Koyaanisqatsi
Reviews
Peter McGinn
This is an art film of sorts, eschewing dialogue or narration or a recognizable plot for a visual and musical banquet of images and scenes. So if you are into art films (or want to appear like you are), this is the film for you. The photographic techniques remind me of nature films, which may not be a coincidence since the subject matter seems to Focus on what is seen as being against nature. So it is all here: explosions and collapsing of buildings, a bridge, about five times, even what looked like a nuclear blast; then time lapse photography of city and highway traffic and masses of people walking; plus slow motion clips of masses of people walking; and shots of tenements and abandoned building and kids playing in water from fire hydrants — well, you get the idea. I like Philip Glass’s music, but there were times I didn’t think what they used quite fit what was being shown on the screen. But like he apparently told the producers more than once before they convinced him to take it on, movie scores weren’t his thing. So as the William Hurt character says in The Big Chill, just let the art flow over you. If nothing else, check out the dress and hair styles of folks in the wacky 1980s!
Filipe Manuel Neto
**For the general public, this film is uninteresting. However, it will have merits if displayed within the most correct context.** I've heard of this film as a documentary, but I honestly don't know if Godfrey Reggio really wanted to document anything. This was the director's debut, and for a first work we can say that there is quality, even though it is a somewhat strange film because it has nothing more than a soundtrack and successive images, which do not seem to have a relationship with each other. If this is an experimental film, I also can't understand what this director really wanted to experiment with. Making a film without a script and without a story? Honestly, this film looks a lot like those successive images that are sometimes shown in waiting rooms, for whoever is sitting there. And what about the film's title? I honestly thought it was some Croatian or Balkan film before I read something about the film and ventured out to see it. Only then did I discover that it was a term from the Hopi language, and that it means living in an unbalanced way. Without a defined script, without any actor, without a spoken word (the title is sung in a threatening Gregorian tone at the beginning and at the end, but I consider this part of the soundtrack pure and simple), we just see all the images and the sound of the music. In short, the film seems like a mute critique of the modern way of life, in contrast to what was lived in the past, before industrialization. It's what I think. And a good movie? It will be good as an introduction to the environmental debate, as a reflection film. For the general public who are not interested in debating these issues, it is not worth it.
CinemaSerf
In the Hopi language, this means a mess or a melée and that’s a pretty good description of this ultimate in observational documentaries. It starts and finishes showing us some of the most stunning and striking natural phenomena from the North American continent before gradually dipping its toe into the world of human endeavour. From some of the most impressive features nature created over millennia to some almost as remarkable creations mankind has erected in a tiny percentage of that time. Whilst not on the scale of the Grand Canyon, there are some human feats that are worth acclaiming here as Philip Glass’s score takes us on this tour. Now I didn’t always love that musical commentary. At times it borders on the soporific, but for the most part it goes hand in hand with some cleverly edited imagery depicting how we can be complementary to our planet and how we can be downright hostile to it. A great deal of creative care has gone into the chronology and the photography here as light, shadow, clouds, glass and some effective time-lapse cinematography shows an evolution of the natural, the industrial and the destructive. You do have to wonder if we’d only take greater care of what we have created and live in a less disposable society, then so much of what we see here that is excessive could be eradicated and our place within the environment of the planet less devastating. It’s a surprisingly effortless watch for ninety minutes and maybe if more saw it, it’s powerful message of striving for greater compatibility might have more impact. I’m not sure the title actually helps on that front. I’ve no idea how to pronounce it, let alone tell folks to watch it - but if you’re reading this and you enjoy big scale drama, then this is hard to beat.
Movie Recommendation
Powaqqatsi1988-04-29An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.More...
Pa Paandi2017-04-14‘Power’ Paandi, once a legendary stunt master who ruled the world of film stunts in his prime years is now content in living a peaceful life with his son and grandchildren. But he soon realizes that his acts that he thinks is normal and righteous, constantly irks his son who seems to taking their relationship for granted. One such overblown tiff with his son drives him to go do some soul searching, the outcome of which has many unexpected experiences.More...
Destruction Babies2016-05-31Taira is a disaffected youth from a seaside town reveling in violence. Enamored by his strength, Yuya joins his crusade in attacking strangers. Meanwhile, Taira's brother looks for him.More...
Wall Engravings1968-02-07Jeanne looks back on her love for Jean. The melancholic young man wouldn't accept the world as it was, always wishing to depart. She doesn't know that he's dead.More...
It All Starts Today1999-03-12In a mining town which has been blighted by economic downturns, an elementary school headmaster struggles to obtain social services on behalf of his students.More...
Scandal1950-04-26A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.More...
Christ Stopped at Eboli1979-02-23In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation.More...
Tender Mercies1983-03-04Alchoholic former country singer Mac Sledge makes friends with a young widow and her son. The friendship enables him to find inspiration to resume his career.More...
Welcome to Sarajevo1997-05-09Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.More...
Classmates2006-08-25Years after graduating from college, a few friends from across the world decide to get together for a reunion. But on the night of the reunion, one of them attempts suicide and goes into a coma.More...
Men and Women1964-08-17Two friends take two prostitutes for a night of pleasure. But the night turns out to be frustrating for all involved, as much bitterness is revealed in their conversation and attitudes, uncovering their anguish and deeper feelings, and the emptiness of their lives.More...
Over the Hills2019-11-07Father and son Vít and Grisha travel to Russia to visit the boy’s mother and sister. Why did their previously harmonious family split in two? A documentary road movie about the distance between two Slavic countries, the difficulties of fatherhood and puberty, and the alienation between people who should, in theory, be the closest of all.More...
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno2009-10-01In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot's production of L'Enfer came to a halt. Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed. This documentary presents Inferno's incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot's original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot's own notes.More...
Beans2021-03-30Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence; forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.More...
Wheels2014-04-27Two suicidal paraplegic junkies hustle their way through the city streets trying to find a reason to live.More...
Bluebeard2010-03-26Anne reads her younger sister, Marie-Catherine, the story of Bluebeard. In 17th-century France, another set of sisters — also named Anne and Marie-Catherine — are left impoverished by their father's death. Marie-Catherine dreams of marrying into money, and soon falls for wealthy divorcé Bluebeard. Grateful for the chance at a life of comfort, Marie-Catherine marries Bluebeard — in spite of rumors that he has made a hobby of murdering his wives.More...
A Party for Ten, Plus Three1980-10-14A bunch of unemployed and unqualified workers are hired to unload a few railway wagons. Because of the low wages, the manager needs to encourage the workers in some other way.More...
L.6271992-09-09In Paris, Lulu, a passionate policeman, works with the faith of a rookie, despite the sclerotic bureaucracy and the incompetence or negligence of some of his colleagues. In his new position as a narcotics inspector, he tries to keep his sanity as he witnesses the worst of the human condition.More...
Liquid Sky1982-08-01An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.More...
Similar Movies
El campo para el homb...
1975-01-01"El campo para el hombre" was a politically militant documentary about the small holdings of land in the north of Spain and the large estates in the south of the country. This film portrays the exploitation and misery of the Spanish peasants, but also their class-consciousness and their will to fight for their rights and freedom. The film was shot in the late years of Franco's dictatorship, so it was made in secrecy (the directors were connected to the Spanish Communist Party).Another Side of the F...
1974-05-10Developments in the Canadian forestry industry during the 1970s are shown being carried out both as lab experiments and in the field to protect and conserve the country's vast forests. These include turning a Newfoundland bog into woodland, fostering British Columbia seedlings that withstand mechanical planting, inoculating Ontario elms against the bark beetle, devising ways of controlling fire, and more.Sicko
2007-05-18A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.Deutschlands wilde Vö...
2013-10-10There is no descriptionA Vida ao Redor do Ce...
2022-10-25There is no descriptionThe Path We Are Leavi...
2025-09-05Forest and community guards face insecurity and clandestine logging in their community.The Life of a Greater...
2014-05-01There is a fabulous colony of Greater Horseshoe Bats in the heart of the Camargue. This species of bat is one of the most amazing. A true little clown equipped with the very latest biological technologies, the Greater Horseshoe Bat is as rare as it is mysterious. "The life of a Greater Horseshoe Bat" invites you to share the life of a young female and her mother, for better or for worse...The Ants and the Gras...
2021-05-26Anita Chitaya has a gift: she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and maybe she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home in Malawi from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate sceptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions that shape the USA: from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, and to the American exceptionalism that remains a part of the culture. It will take all her skill and experience to help Americans recognise, and free themselves from, a logic that is already destroying the Earth.Watershed: Exploring ...
2012-03-24As the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world struggles to support thirty million people and the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River Pact reaches its limits, WATERSHED introduces hope. Can we meet the needs of a growing population in the face of rising temperatures and lower rainfall in an already arid land? Can we find harmony amongst the competing interests of cities, agriculture, industry, recreation, wildlife, and indigenous communities with rights to the water? Sweeping through seven U.S. and two Mexican states, the Colorado River is a lifeline to expanding populations and booming urban centers that demand water for drinking, sanitation and energy generation. And with 70% of the rivers’ water supporting agriculture, the river already runs dry before it reaches its natural end at the Gulf of California. Unless action is taken, the river will continue its retreat – a potentially catastrophic scenario for the millions who depend on it.Au fil de l'eau, les ...
2020-01-01There is no descriptionPlastic People
2024-03-09Are we becoming Plastic People? Our ground-breaking feature documentary investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. Almost every bit of plastic ever made ends up ground down into "microplastics". These microscopic particles drift in the air, float in the water and sit in the soil. And now, leading scientists are finding them in our bodies: organs, blood, brain tissue and even the placentas of new mothers. What is the impact of these invisible invaders on our health? Ziya Tong, author and science journalist, makes it personal by visiting leading scientists and undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and on her body.Dragons and Damsels
2019-03-19More beautiful than butterflies, more spectacular fliers than hummingbirds, and with intriguing behavior as complex as mammals or birds. They’ve been flying around for hundreds of millions of years, crossing paths with dinosaurs before we mammals were even a twinkle in the eye of evolution.Tiché údolí v čase
2023-11-20There is no descriptionSerengeti: Circle of ...
2011-02-24An animal documentary by Emmy award winner Hugo van Lawick. The viewer experiences unforgettable and magnificent recordings from Africa, accompanied by a fantastic soundtrack!Wild Amsterdam
2018-03-01The city from the unique perspective of the many wild animals and plants that inhabit it. Seen through the eyes of the adventurous urban cat, Abatutu.Tears in the Amazon
2010-03-25A documentary about environment destruction in the Amazon and the tribes living there. Produced for the 48th anniversary of MBC, Korea. A brilliant records of the itinerary for 250 days through the Amazon.78 days: A Tree Plant...
2014-01-20Tree planting is one of the most physically and mentally demanding jobs in Canada. Working long days in the baking sun of desolate clear cuts, you can expect rain storms and snow covered tents: that's tree planting in Northern Alberta. In this documentary, veteran planters share their experiences as they struggle through each day of what has become the longest and most difficult season ever!Along Newfoundland's ...
1962-01-01This short documentary includes three vignettes about life off the coast of Newfoundland. In Island of Birds, we visit Green Island, a sea bird sanctuary where puffins frolic. In Caplin Harvest, little silvery fish called caplin spawn by washing ashore along the waves, making an easy catch for fishermen. In Outports on the Move, off-shore houses are pried loose from their foundation and floated to the Newfoundland mainland, where schools, hospitals, stores and services are available to the community.Revontulien armoilla
2019-12-04In this documentary, scientists reveal their findings on the influence of solar storms on animal behavior and human transport infrastructure. The documentary explains why solar storms pose a threat to humanity: In extreme cases, they can damage satellites, slow down air traffic and paralyze high-voltage and telecommunications networks.THE HIDDEN HEARTBEAT
No data for this movieA captivating documentary that explores the profound connection between humanity and the whispering woods.