The Qatsi Trilogy [Criterion Collection] [3 Discs] [Blu-ray]

Criterion Collection (3Pc)

Overview

Beginning in the early 1980s, avant-garde director Godfrey Reggio launched an unusual, critically-acclaimed documentary series known as the Qatsi trilogy. The first installment, Koyaanisqatsi (1983), has a title that means "life in turmoil" in Hopi; accordingly, the movie contrasts images of the harmony present in nature with the violent disruption that takes place when civilization rears its head. Its follow-up, the 1988 Powaqaatsi, uses a similar framework and approach that shows how Third World cultures continue to be exploited by more modernized societies. The third and final installment, 2002's Naqoyqatsi, examines the complex impact of technology on civilizaton, with dozens of preexisting images that Reggio digitally and optically alters, essentially implying that technology has become part and parcel of early 21st century culture in lieu of disrupting it. All three films appear in this box set from the Criterion Collection.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/11/2012
UPC:	0715515100618
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen, Color]
Language:	English
Time:	4:34:00
Sales rank:	3,908

Special Features

New, restored digital transfers of all three films, approved by director Godfrey Reggio, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD master audio soundtracks; Essence of life, an interview program with Reggio and composer Philip Glass on Koyaanisqatsi; New interview with cinematographer Ron Fricke about Koyaanisqatsi; Television spots and a new interview with Reggio relating to his 1970s multimedia privacy campaign in New Mexico; Early forty-minute demo version of Koyaanisqatsi with a partial scratch soundtrack featuring poet Allen Ginsberg, along with a new introduction by Reggio; New interview with Reggio about Koyaanisqatsi's original visual concept, with behind-the-scenes footage; Impact of progress, an interview program with Reggio and Glass on their collaboration; Inspiration and ideas, a new interview with Reggio about his greatest influences and teachers; Public television interview with Reggio from 1989 about the trilogy; Anima Mundi (1992), Reggio's twenty-eight-minute montage of footage of over seventy animal species, scored by Glass; New video afteward by Reggio on the trilogy; The making of "Naqoyqatsi," a brief documentary featuring interviews with the production crew; Panel discussion on Naqoyqatsi from 2003, with Reggio, Glass, editor Jon Kane, and music critic John Rockwell; Interview with Glass and cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Trailers; PLUS: a booklet featuring essays by film scholar Scott MacDonald, Rockwell, and author and environmentalist Bill McKibben