St James' Film Society: Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi was made in 1982 by social activist Godfrey Reggio, who was for 14 years a Catholic monk, and involved in an anti-surveillance campaign for the American Civil Liberties Union. The film is a non-narrative documentary is an hour-and-a-half-long montage of timelapse, slow motion and stock footage showing the American urban and rural environment.

Reggio wanted to name the film with an image, but when forced to choose a word he opted for a Hopi word meaning life out of balance. It is the first of the Qatsi trilogy, followed by Powaqqatsi (Life in Transformation, 1988) and Naqoyqatsi (Life as War, 2002). All the films are interested in the relationship between human beings, technology, and the natural world.

Led by the US, the Capitalist West had been over-successful in promoting economic growth through production and consumption. Technological growth was rapid; the world population grew dramatically, surging development produced ecological ruin: 'trends that the planet and its people cannot long bear," as described by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, which would formulate a vision of sustainable development.

None of the three films have dialogue or a spoken narrative. "It's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words," Reggio said. "It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live."

"It's not that we use technology, we live technology," Reggio said. "Technology has become as ubiquitous as the air we breathe.' Refusing an explicit narrative, the Qatsi films make that air visible, asking wordless questions about the world that was being made (and that we have inherited).

Please join us for a free screening of the film in the atmospheric Crypt of historic St James' Church.

There will be a brief introduction by film buff and armchair theologian Phil Walker-Harding before the film (runtime 86 minutes), before enjoying some pizza (at cost) and an optional discussion about contamination, late industrialism, and the elusive concept of balance, both in the film and in the present.

All images under Creative Commons license via Wikimedia Commons.