Among the Bergmans, Vilgot Sjöman and Éric Rohmer, I rented all of the Qatsi trilogy after a Post-Colonial Visual Culture class during which the last film, Naqoyqatsi (2002), was torn apart for its condescending universalism. Still I got really obsessed with Koyaanisqati (1982) - the first in the trilogy - and watched it twenty times over a weekend (London can be very rainy). Sometimes as background (a Philip Glass soundtrack) music, sometimes as a whole, sometimes as extracts, sometimes as loops, sometimes to observe what the 1980s everyday looked like: what were the colours of billboards or on planes? What forms were cars and trucks taking? What were lighting systems like? What was makeup like? Technology like? Outfits like? Hairstyles? Glasses? Traffic systems? Smoking habits?
While aspects this 'experimental' documentary are sometimes condescending (the title of the film does translate as Life Out of Balance) and underneath its 'objective' looking images has a clunky and at times desperately unsubtle social comment, my curiosity for the everyday overruled all of it....
Yesterday I was in nyc's midtown eating soap in a front window - it felt like television. And watching people on their cellphones bustling around reminded of my obsession for this 'experimental' documentary by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass:
Yesterday I was in nyc's midtown eating soap in a front window - it felt like television. And watching people on their cellphones bustling around reminded of my obsession for this 'experimental' documentary by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass:
How did people look when they lived without cellphones?
