Koyaanisqatsi
original film poster
Directed by	Godfrey Reggio
Produced by	Godfrey Reggio
Written by	Ron Fricke Michael Hoenig Godfrey Reggio Alton Walpole
Music by	Philip Glass
Cinematography	Ron Fricke
Editing by	Ron Fricke Alton Walpole
Distributed by	New Cinema and Island Alive (USA)
Release date(s)	November 11, 1983
Running time	87 minutes
Language	English, Hopi
Followed by	Powaqqatsi
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by minimalist composer Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Polaroid by Michael Dare Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. ... Polaroid by Michael Dare Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. ... Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer. ... Michael Hoenig (born January 4th, 1952 in Hamburg) is a German composer who, in addition to two solo albums, has composed music for several movies and games. ... Polaroid by Michael Dare Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer. ... Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer. ... No Wave Cinema was a nearly nine year boom (1976-1985) in underground filmmaking on the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City. ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Hopi is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, although today some Hopi are monolingual English speakers. ... Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation is the 1988 sequel to the experimental 1983 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Reggio. ... Polaroid by Michael Dare Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. ... Minimalist music is an originally American genre of experimental or Downtown music named in the 1960s based mostly in consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile drones), stasis and slow transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer. ...

The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means 'life of moral corruption and turmoil, life out of balance', and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way. Slow motion is an effect resulting from running film through a movie camera at faster-than-normal speed. ... The flower of a geranium opening over a period of about two hours. ... Hopi is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, although today some Hopi are monolingual English speakers. ...

The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Koyaanisqatsi is the best known of the trilogy and is considered a cult film. However, due to copyright issues, the film was out of print for most of the 1990s.^[1] The Qatsi triology is an informal name given to a series of three films produced by Godfrey Reggio and scored by Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of balance (1983) Powaqqatsi: Life in transformation (1988) Naqoyqatsi: Life as war (2002) The titles of all three films are words from the language... Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation is the 1988 sequel to the experimental 1983 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Reggio. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Naqoyqatsi: ÉÀ ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature or film, that are connected and can be seen as a single work, as well as three individual ones. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

Synopsis

The film contains several cinematic sequences accompanied by recurring musical themes. The chapters on the Koyaanisqatsi DVD are separated and named by the titles of the musical sections.

The first image in the film is of a Fremont Indian pictogram located in The Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon, part of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The large skylight arch depicted a few scenes later is a formation called Paul Bunyan's Potty in the Needles District of Canyonlands. The section shown depicts several tall darkly-shadowed figures standing near a taller figure adorned with a crown. The next image is a close-up of the Saturn V rocket from the Apollo 12 mission during lift off. The film fades into a shot of a desolate desert landscape. From there, it progresses to footage of various natural environmental phenomena such as waves and cloud formations ("Organic"). This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Great Gallery, Canyonlands NP Horseshoe Canyon, formerly known as Barrier Canyon, is in a remote area west of the Green River and north of the Canyonlands National Park Maze District in Utah, USA. It is known for its collection of Barrier Canyon Style (BCS) rock art, including both pictographs... Canyonlands National Park, located near Moab, Utah and the Arches National Park, was designated as a National Park on September 12, 1964. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Close Up is a half hour long New Zealand current affairs program produced by Television New Zealand. ... For the moon designated Saturn V, see Rhea. ... Apollo 12 was the sixth manned mission in the Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. ...

The film's introduction to man's involvement in the environment is subtle: a low aerial shot of choppy water cuts to a similar shot of rows of cultivated flowers. After aerial views of monumental rock formations partly drowned by the backed up waters of Lake Powell, we see a large mining truck causing billows of black dust in the chapter titled "Resource". This is followed by shots of power lines in the desert. Man's continued involvement in the environment is depicted through images of mining operations, overhead shots of power plants, Glen Canyon Dam (not Hoover Dam as Navajo Bridge is visible) and stock footage of atomic bomb detonations in the Nevada desert. Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. ... Transmission towers Transmission lines in Lund, Sweden Electric power transmission, or more accurately Electrical energy transmission, is the second process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. ... Glen Canyon Dam on 19 June 2005. ... Navajo Bridge crosses the Colorado Rivers Marble Canyon near Lees Ferry, Arizona. ... Stock footage, also termed archive footage, library pictures and file footage is film or video footage that is reused in a film. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... Official language(s) English Capital Carson City Largest city Las Vegas Area  Ranked 7th  - Total 110,567 sq mi (286,367 km²)  - Width 322 miles (519 km)  - Length 490 miles (788 km)  - % water 0. ...

The sequence entitled "Vessels" contains the film's longest single take: a three minute and thirty-two second long shot of two United Airlines commercial passenger Boeing 747s taxiing on a runway. "Vessels" also contains shots of traffic patterns during rush hour on a Los Angeles freeway and a shot of a large parking lot. This is followed with stock footage of tanks lined up in rows and a B-1 Lancer military aircraft.^[2] United Airlines, also known as United Air Lines, Inc. ... The Boeing 747, commonly nicknamed the Jumbo Jet, is a long-haul, widebody commercial airliner manufactured by Boeing. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... Interstate 80 (Eastshore Freeway) in Berkeley, California: a typical American freeway (MUTCD definition) A freeway, also known as a highway, superhighway, autoroute, autobahn, autostrada, dual carriageway, expressway, Autosnelweg or motorway, depending on the country of discussion, is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles... The B-1 Lancer is an American strategic bomber with variable geometry wings. ...

The juxtaposition of man and nature is seen again in the chapter "Cloudscape". The time-lapse photography of shadows of clouds is seen moving across the skyscrapers in New York City. The flower of a geranium opening over a period of about two hours. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

The sequence "Pruitt-Igoe" contains shots of various housing projects in disrepair, and includes footage of the decay and demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project. The housing project was known for its modernist design, but fell into immediate disrepair. The sequence ends with stock footage of the destruction of large buildings and a shot of a television set being blown up. The Pruitt-Igoe complex in the U.S. city of St. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ...

A sequence known as "Slow People" begins with a time-lapse shot of a crowd of people who appear to be waiting in a line. This is followed by shots of people walking along the streets of New York City shot with slow motion photography. The flower of a geranium opening over a period of about two hours. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Slow motion is an effect resulting from running film through a movie camera at faster-than-normal speed. ...

"The Grid" is the film's longest sequence, roughly 22 minutes in length. The cinematic theme of this sequence is the speed of modern life. The sequence begins with shots of buildings and a shot of a sunset reflected in the glass of a skyscraper. The sequence is characterized by its use of time lapse photography of the activity of modern life, taking events typically shot at normal speed and accelerating them. The events captured in this sequence involve people interacting with modern technology. The first shots are traffic patterns as seen from skyscrapers at night. This is followed by the film's iconic shot of the moon passing behind a skyscraper. The next shots are closer shots of cars on highway. The sun rises over the city and we see shots of people hurrying to work. The film shows at regular speed the operation of machines packaging Oscar Mayer bologna. People are shown sorting mail, sewing jeans, manufacturing televisions and doing other jobs with the use of modern technology. A shot of hot dogs being sent down rows of conveyers is followed by a shot of people moving up escalators. The frenetic speed and pace of the cuts and background music do not slow as shots of modern leisure are shown. People eat, play, shop and work at the same speed. The sequence begins to come full circle as the manufacturing of automobiles in an assembly line factory is shown. The flower of a geranium opening over a period of about two hours. ... Oscar Mayer Oscar Mayer is an American meat and cold cut production company, now owned by Kraft Foods, known for its hot dogs, bologna, bacon and Lunchables products. ... Bologna sausage is an American version of the Italian mortadella (a finely hashed/ground pork sausage with lard pieces, which originated in the Italian city of Bologna). ... Blue Jeans (Levis 506) Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics including corduroy. ... A large hot dog with ketchup A hot dog is classified as a type of sausage or, alternatively, a sandwich on a suitably shaped bun with the sausage and condiments on it. ... Escalators at Canary Wharf, London. ... Modern car assembly line. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Screenshot from Koyaanisqatsi.

More shots of highway traffic are shown, this time in daylight. The film shows the movement of cars, shopping carts, Twinkies, and televisions on an assembly line, and elevators moving from first person perspective. These shots include cars along the elevated freeway California State Route 480 (later demolished due to damage from the 1989 earthquake), and people on escalators to the PATH station below the World Trade Center. The film then shows clips from various television shows being channel surfed in fast motion. Clips include a car crash, several newscasts moving so fast that the anchors' faces are blurred, football games, and someone writing Rolaids on a chalkboard. One portion of this sequence shows a man and two different couples reacting to being filmed on the street in slow motion photography. The man is somewhat indifferent to being filmed, but one woman appears peeved and one man looks confused about being filmed. The sequence now shows cars moving much faster than they were moving before. Both the sequence and the music end without resolution, either cinematic or musical. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A Twinkie is a Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling created by Hostess, and baked by Continental Baking Co, which is owned by Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corporation. ... Section of the Embarcadero Freeway in front of the Ferry Building during demolition State Route 480 was a proposed state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway (also known as the Embarcadero Skyway), the partly-elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden... The Loma Prieta earthquake was a major earthquake affecting the greater San Francisco Bay Area of California. ... Escalators at Westminster tube station, London An escalator is a conveyor transport device to transport people, consisting of a staircase whose steps move up or down on tracks which keep the surfaces of the individual steps horizontal. ... Late-night and weekend service: The World Trade Center PATH station, originally opened on July 19, 1909 as the Hudson Terminal. ... “WTC” redirects here. ... Channel surfing is the practice of quickly scanning through different television channels or radio frequencies in order to find something interesting to watch or listen to. ... Rolaids is a brand of antacid produced by Pfizer. ... Resolution in western tonal music theory is the need for a sounded note and/or chord to move from a dissonance or unstable sound to a more final or stable sounding one, a consonance. ...

"Microchips" juxtaposes pictures of microchips and satellite photography of metropolitan cities, making an obvious comparison between their layouts.

"Prophecies" shows various shots of people from all walks of modern life, from beggars to debutantes. A scene of firefighters moving along a smoky street was shot during the aftermath of the riots after the New York City blackout of 1977. TIME, July 25, 1977 “New York Blackout” redirects here. ...

"Ending" shows stock footage of a modified and unmanned Atlas rocket from the Mercury program from the early 1960s. The rocket blows up shortly after lift off (many viewers mistakenly assume it to be the space shuttle Challenger, the destruction of which occurred three years after the movie's release). The footage follows the flaming rocket engine as it plummets to earth. The film comes full circle with a shot of a different portion of The Great Gallery pictograph. It is similar to the first shot, but with no darkly shadowed figures. All of the figures are shown in different outfits. Mercury Atlas 9 rocket and capsule on pad The Atlas is a venerable line of space launch vehicles built by Lockheed Martin. ... Description Role: Orbital spaceflight Crew: one, pilot Dimensions Height: 11. ... An iconic image of the accident. ... Pictogram for public toilets A pictogram or pictograph is a symbol which represents an object or a concept by illustration. ...

Music

Koyaanisqatsi
Soundtrack by Philip Glass
Released	1983
Genre	Soundtrack, film score, contemporary classical, Minimalism
Length	46:25
Label	Antilles/Island
Producer	Kurt Munkacsi & Philip Glass
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone 1983-12-08
Philip Glass chronology
Glassworks (1982) Koyaanisqatsi (1983) The Photographer (1983)
Koyaanisqatsi (1998 re-recording)

Reggio was intent on Philip Glass producing the score. He approached Glass through a mutual friend, and Glass replied, "I don't do film music." Reggio persisted, until he gained a meeting with Glass who nevertheless declined. Determined, Reggio put together a photo montage with Glass' music as the soundtrack, which he presented to Glass at a private screening in New York. Immediately following this, Glass agreed to score the film.^{[citation needed]} It became his first commercial success, and Glass would later score the other two films in the Qatsi trilogy. Glass had to create a 'music of nature' as well as a 'music of technology'.^{[citation needed]} The opening for "The Grid" is characterized by slow sustained notes on brass instruments. The music builds in speed and dynamics throughout the piece's 21 minutes. When the piece is at its fastest, it is characterized by a synthesizer playing the piece's bass line ostinato. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... In film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound. ... A film score is a set of musical compositions written to accompany a film. ... In the broadest sense, contemporary music is any music being written in the present day. ... Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Island Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and is operated through The Island Def Jam Music Group. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 5_stars. ... This article is about the magazine. ... Image File history File links 3_stars. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Glassworks is an album by Philip Glass with 5 pieces, released under CBS/Sony Classical in 1982. ... The Photographer is an opera by composer Philip Glass that is based on the homicide trial of renown photographer Eadweard Muybridge. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... In music, dynamics normally refers to the softness or loudness of a sound or note, but also to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc. ... Synthesizer as used in music, is a term derived from a Greek word syntithetai < synthesis (συντίθεται < σύνθεσις) and is used to describe a device capable of generating and/or manipulating electronic signals for use in music creation, recording and performance. ... In music, an ostinato (derived from Italian: stubborn, compare English: obstinate) is a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated at the same pitch. ...

The film's soundtrack by Glass was released in 1983, after the release of the film. Despite the fact that the amount of music in the film was almost as long as the film itself, the soundtrack release was only 46 minutes long, and only featured selections from the film's pieces. In 1998, Glass re-recorded the album through Nonesuch Records with a length of 73 minutes, 21 seconds. The re-recording of the album featured two additional tracks from the film, as well as extended versions of previous tracks from the original album. The album was released as a Philip Glass album titled Koyaanisqatsi, rather than a soundtrack to the film. The music has become so popular, that the Philip Glass Ensemble has toured the world, playing the music for Koyaanisqatsi live in front of the movie screen. Nonesuch Records is currently allied with Warner Bros. ... The Philip Glass Ensemble is a musical group founded by composer Philip Glass in 1968 to serve as a performance outlet for his experimental minimalist music. ...

Lew Soloff played trumpet on the soundtrack.^{[citation needed]} Lew Soloff (born February 20, 1944 in New York City) is a jazz trumpeter. ...

The Pruitt-Igoe complex in the U.S. city of St. ... Look up sic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Pruitt-Igoe complex in the U.S. city of St. ... Look up sic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Meaning

In a short documentary about the film, Essence of Life, Reggio states that the Qatsi films are intended to simply create an experience and that "it is up [to] the viewer to take for herself what it is that [the film] means." Reggio said in Essence of Life "these films have never been about the effect of technology, of industry on people. It's been that everyone: politics, education, things of the financial structure, the nation state structure, language, the culture, religion, all of that exists within the host of technology. So it's not the effect of it's that everything exists within [technology]. It's not that we use technology, we live technology. Technology has become as ubiquitous as the air we breathe..."

The movie has no dialogue but does feature the Hopi word koyaanisqatsi, translated as "life of moral corruption and turmoil" or "life out of balance." "Koyaanisqatsi" is chanted at the beginning and end of the film in a dark, sepulchral basso profundo by singer Albert de Ruiter over the score by Philip Glass. Three Hopi prophecies are sung by a choral ensemble over the film's final few minutes and are translated just prior to the end credits: Hopi is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, although today some Hopi are monolingual English speakers. ... A bass (or basso in Italian) is a male singer who sings in the deepest vocal range of the human voice. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ...

• "If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
• "Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
• "A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

The film took about six years to make. Three years were spent shooting the film. Glass and Reggio spent an additional three years in a state of collaboration, with Glass composing score to fit the film and Reggio re-cutting the footage to fit the score.

The movie credits Jacques Ellul, Guy Debord and Ivan Illich for its basic inspiration at the end of the film. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Guy Ernest Debord (December 28, 1931, in Paris – November 30, 1994, in Champot) was a writer, film maker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International (SI). ... Ivan Illich Ivan Illich (Vienna, September 4, 1926 - Bremen, December 2, 2002) was a Croatian development critic. ...

Releases

Cover of the MGM DVD release of Koyaanisqatsi.

Out of print for over a decade, Koyaanisqatsi was re-released on DVD in late 2002. Much of the reason for the film's disappearance from the market centered around a complicated rights and royalties dispute. Reggio's Institute for Regional Education owns the original copyright on the film. The film had originally been licensed and distributed through Island Entertainment/Palm Pictures, which had subsequently been sold to PolyGram - and after the dissolution of PolyGram Pictures, the entire PolyGram film library had been sold to Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. As there had been many accounting departments for these several entities involved, calculations and payments of royalties to the film makers had not been made. IRE brought suit and released an independently-financed DVD production of the film to raise money for the legal costs. The DVD was released at a cost of $185, which was far lower than the $400 average that a laserdisc copy of the movie would typically bring when they showed up on ebay prior to the release of the DVD. This DVD is in a full-frame 4:3 format. MGM and IRE reached an agreement allowing for the current mass-market version through MGM. Image File history File links Koyaanisqatsi_DVD_Cover. ... Image File history File links Koyaanisqatsi_DVD_Cover. ... Size comparison: A 12 cm Sony DVD+RW and a 19 cm Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. ... Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ... Palm Pictures is a US based entertainment company owned and run by Chris Blackwell. ... PolyGram was the name from 1972 of the major label recording company started by Philips as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... eBay headquarters in San Jose eBay North First Street satellite office campus (home to PayPal) eBay Inc. ...

Acclaim

The film won the "Francis Ford Coppola Presents" endorsement at the 1982 New York Film Festival, and Coppola is now credited as an executive producer. In an interview, Godfrey Reggio says "...[Coppola] would like to do everything possible to make this available to the public, so he put his name on it".^[3] In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed Koyaanisqatsi "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is a five-time Academy Award winning American film director, producer, and screenwriter. ... The New York Film Festival is the one of the United Statess most prestigious film festivals, first held in 1962 in New York. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ...

Legacy

Koyaanisqatsi is followed by the sequels Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi and the shorts Anima Mundi and Evidence. Naqoyqatsi was completed after a lengthy delay caused by funding problems and premiered in the United States on October 18, 2002. [1] Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation is the 1988 sequel to the experimental 1983 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Reggio. ... Naqoyqatsi: ÉÀ ... Anima Mundi is a 1991 short documentary film directed by Godfrey Reggio. ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ...

The film's cinematographer, Ron Fricke, went on to direct Baraka, a pure cinema movie which is often compared to Koyaanisqatsi. A Cameraman-Reporter during a MINUSTAH mission in 2007 (Photo: Patrick-André Perron A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera (the art and science of which is known as cinematography). ... Ron Fricke is an American film director and cinematographer. ... Baraka (1992) is an experimental documentary film directed by Ron Fricke, cinematographer for Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the Qatsi films by Godfrey Reggio. ... Pure cinema is the film theory that a moviemaker can create a more emotionally intense experience through using autonomous film techniques, as opposed to using stories, characters, or actors. ...

Influence

• The chanted koyaanisqatsi lyric was parodied in the P. D. Q. Bach piece Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz, being replaced with the lyric Coy Hotsy-Totsy.
• The Simpsons parodied Koyaanisqatsi in the episode "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder". There is a fast-motion sequence when Homer oversleeps, accompanied by music very similar to that in the film.
• In The Simpsons episode "Million Dollar Abie" a time-lapse sequence with Koyaanisqatsi-like music is used to show the passage of 24 hours at the Springfield Retirement Castle.
• The fast-motion cinematography of Koyaanisqatsi inspired subsequent films and music video, including the Madonna video to "Ray of Light", or more directly the David Bowie and Queen music video to "Under Pressure", which used some of the same footage of buildings being destroyed. Also, many commercials over the years have used shots from the film.^{[citation needed]}
• Part of the musical score is used in the UK TV Advertisement for the environmental organization The Carbon Trust.
• The computer game musician Rob Hubbard referenced parts of the Koyaanisqatsi score in his music for the Commodore 64 game Delta.
• In season 6 episode 5 of the WB show Gilmore Girls, entitled "We've Got Magic To Do", the character named Kirk does an interpretive dance to the music of Koyaanisqatsi.
• On the Scrubs episode "My New God", the main theme from Koyaanisqatsi is played when the Janitor character is giving J.D. the "evil eye". The theme was also used in the episode "My Chopped Liver" when four of the characters gave Carla the "evil eye".
• In the digital audio workstation software Digital Performer, a reverberation plugin contains a stored preset named Koyaanisqatsi.
• The 2005 film War of the Worlds pays a tribute the film in the introduction, when describing how the world was before the alien arrival. A series of 6 consecutive shots mimic Koyaanisqatsi shots.
• Several time-lapse scenes of Los Angeles and New York City were later edited into the 1991 Steve Martin film, L.A. Story.
• On 11/02/2001, musical group The Disco Biscuits performed a live improvisational set to "Koyaanisqatsi" while the film was displayed on screen at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon.
• In the episode "I Kid You Not" of Cheers, Lilith and Frasier take Carla's son Ludlow to a screening of Koyaanisqatsi.^[4]
• The 2004 Far-Less album Turn to the Bright features a song "Out of Balance (Koyaanisqatsi)".
• System of a Down's 1999 video for "Sugar" has fast-motion scenes of people going up escalators and ends with the same footage of one of the atomic explosions in the film.
• The score (from the opening and closing of the Pruitt-Igoe musical selection from the film) and time-lapse technique are used in the first Grand Theft Auto IV videogame trailer, to introduce the viewer into the game's newly designed world. The trailer was released on Thursday, March 29th, 2007.^{[citation needed]}
• The English band Maxïmo Park, use the score from Pruitt-Igoe as their intro music at live gigs.^{[citation needed]}
• A nuclear missile silo in Colorado is named Koyaanisqatsi. It is designated L-9. From the west junction of State Highways 71 and 14, go north 13.3 miles on State Highway 71. The silo is on the left. Latitude 40-47-25 Longitude 103-41-23.^{[citation needed]}
• An episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Hong Kong) contains a scene very similar to the Sausage scene, including slow motion, fast motion, similar music, and noodles coming out of a machine.

In contemporary usage, a parody (or lampoon) is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... P. D. Q. Bach is a fictional composer invented by musical satirist Professor Peter Schickele. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder is the sixth episode of the eleventh season of The Simpsons. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Million Dollar Abie is the sixteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. ... Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as simply Madonna, is a six-time Grammy[1] and one-time Golden Globe award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ... David Bowie (IPA: []) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. ... Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining the following year. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Carbon Trust is an independent, non-profit organization which was created by the UK government to help businesses and public organisations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, through improved efficiency and developing low carbon technology. ... Rob Hubbard (born 1956?, Kingston upon Hull, England) is a music composer best known for his composition of computer game theme music, especially for microcomputers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... 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References

See also

• Powaqqatsi
• Naqoyqatsi
• Qatsi trilogy
• Baraka

Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation is the 1988 sequel to the experimental 1983 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Reggio. ... Naqoyqatsi: ÉÀ ... The Qatsi triology is an informal name given to a series of three films produced by Godfrey Reggio and scored by Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of balance (1983) Powaqqatsi: Life in transformation (1988) Naqoyqatsi: Life as war (2002) The titles of all three films are words from the language... Baraka can refer to several things: // In Judaism, a berakhah or bracha (Hebrew: ברכה; plural ברכות, berakhot) is a blessing, usually recited at a specific moment during a ceremony or other activity. ...

External links

• Official homepage of the Qatsi trilogy
• Koyaanisqatsi at the Internet Movie Database
• Salon.com article
• New Yorker Review 2005
• Spirit of Baraka. A reference site for films such as Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi and the people who made them.
• Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and the Triumph of Substance (Interview with Godfrey Reggio from the L.A. Weekly) by Michael Dare