Koyaanisqatsi

"Koyaanisqatsi" is a visual concert of images set to the haunting music of Phillip Glass. While there is no story in the traditional sense, there is a definite scenario. The film opens on ancient Native American cave drawings, while the soundtrack chants "Koyaanisqatsi," which is a Hopi term for "life out of balance." The film uses extensive time-lapse photography (which speeds images up) and slow-motion photography to make comparisons between different types of physical motion. In one of the first examples, we see cloud formations moving (sped up) inter-cut with a montage of ocean waves (slowed down), and in such a way we are able to see the similarities of movement between these natural forces. This technique of comparison exists throughout the film, and through it we learn more about the world around us. The film progresses from purely natural environments to nature as affected by humankind, and finally to humankind's own human-made environment, devoid of nature yet still following the patterns of natural flow as depicted in the beginning of the film, yet in chaos and disarray. Through this the film conveys its key message, which is Koyaanisqatsi: life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living.