Get out of all the everyday's confusion, run away from the troubles you have and for one moment just think about what life's is all about, why we are here on this planet with this life. Make some reflections of why we end up destroying our world while trying to make better things for ourselves. And most important: realize that this parasitic way of life (consumations, explorations, degradations, etc.) that reaches a life's transition from some point to another distant point is the same thing that make us live and evolve and it can also make us die. Stop everything and watch Godfrey Reggio's second installment of his Qatsi trilogy "Powaqqatsi". This is art and philosophy at its best, together!
I'm a little suspect to talk about these powerful and beautiful documentaries since I'm a big fan of all of them and my perception on each film is a mix of things that in the end leaves me speechless. Reggio's take on this film goes almost the same way the other two "Koyaanisqatsi" (1983) and "Naqoyqatsi" (2001): countless images taken from around the world (10 countries including Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Peru and others), images that take us back to the wild, forests, deserts, reminding us of how the world was at one day, later making a contrast with our modern world of cities, computers, technologies, cars, the polluted and almost destroyed world; the endless and inadequate balance between war and peace, joy and sadness, power and weakness; beautiful and fantastic panoramic shots of places followed by the great music by Philip Glass.
"Powaqqatsi" (which means "Parasitic way of life" or "life in transformation" in the Hopi language) reflects about how the third world countries were affected by the evolution of better developed countries in terms of production, exportation, technology, the impact on culture and other things. The first image of the film is powerful and very memorable: an enormous line of suffering miners in Serra Pelada, one of the biggest gold mines to appear in Brazil in the 1980's, and you see the miners long walking in it, you see them by the thousands. From this point, just follow the images, the sounds, the way people look at the camera, reflecting on something we don't know and think about how small we are in this vast world that seems so far away but at the same time it might be so close to us all.
I enjoyed it a lot this film although a little bit less than the others since the way the theme was explored until finally reach its conclusion, explaining what the title means, was distractive at parts, sometimes the images just went way too far for a purpose in which I couldn't find any. The music was good but Glass placed his more common materials in soundtracks like the violins and keyboards on the side, turning his preference to horns, trumpets, percussions and more noisy instruments and in the end it wasn't a much memorable soundtrack. But these are minor complaints of a outstanding work and must not be taken so seriously.
If you like meditation through films, stunning images that can make you smile, cry, think, feel, make your heart beat, things that can hypnotize you in a great way, a stir of the senses in just one media "Powaqqatsi" is perfect for you. Don't even blink for a second! 10/10
I'm a little suspect to talk about these powerful and beautiful documentaries since I'm a big fan of all of them and my perception on each film is a mix of things that in the end leaves me speechless. Reggio's take on this film goes almost the same way the other two "Koyaanisqatsi" (1983) and "Naqoyqatsi" (2001): countless images taken from around the world (10 countries including Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Peru and others), images that take us back to the wild, forests, deserts, reminding us of how the world was at one day, later making a contrast with our modern world of cities, computers, technologies, cars, the polluted and almost destroyed world; the endless and inadequate balance between war and peace, joy and sadness, power and weakness; beautiful and fantastic panoramic shots of places followed by the great music by Philip Glass.
"Powaqqatsi" (which means "Parasitic way of life" or "life in transformation" in the Hopi language) reflects about how the third world countries were affected by the evolution of better developed countries in terms of production, exportation, technology, the impact on culture and other things. The first image of the film is powerful and very memorable: an enormous line of suffering miners in Serra Pelada, one of the biggest gold mines to appear in Brazil in the 1980's, and you see the miners long walking in it, you see them by the thousands. From this point, just follow the images, the sounds, the way people look at the camera, reflecting on something we don't know and think about how small we are in this vast world that seems so far away but at the same time it might be so close to us all.
I enjoyed it a lot this film although a little bit less than the others since the way the theme was explored until finally reach its conclusion, explaining what the title means, was distractive at parts, sometimes the images just went way too far for a purpose in which I couldn't find any. The music was good but Glass placed his more common materials in soundtracks like the violins and keyboards on the side, turning his preference to horns, trumpets, percussions and more noisy instruments and in the end it wasn't a much memorable soundtrack. But these are minor complaints of a outstanding work and must not be taken so seriously.
If you like meditation through films, stunning images that can make you smile, cry, think, feel, make your heart beat, things that can hypnotize you in a great way, a stir of the senses in just one media "Powaqqatsi" is perfect for you. Don't even blink for a second! 10/10