Details
Released in 1982, Koyaanisqatsi marked the beginning of director Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi trilogy—a landmark in experimental cinema. With no narration or dialogue, the film unfolds as a visual symphony, juxtaposing time-lapse cityscapes, slow-motion nature, and industrial ruin to reveal the growing dissonance between technology and the natural world. The title, derived from the Hopi word meaning “life out of balance,” captures the film’s underlying tension—an abstract yet urgent meditation on modernity’s speed, excess, and fragility.
Scored by Philip Glass, the minimalist composition becomes inseparable from the imagery, guiding the film’s structure like a pulse. Koyaanisqatsi was not just watched—it was felt. A cinematic experience that spoke in image and rhythm, not plot or character, it became a cult artifact for designers, artists, and architects exploring systems, urbanity, and collapse.
Technical Specifications
Directed by Godfrey Reggio
Music by Philip Glass
Cinematography by Ron Fricke
Running time: 86 minutes
United States
No dialogue
Network
Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, Ron Fricke
Courtesy
Original 2002 Criterion Collection DVD release of Koyaanisqatsi (Spine No. 155)