Cheap Powaqqatsi - Life in Transformation (DVD) (Godfrey Reggio) Price

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Customer Reviews of Powaqqatsi - Life in Transformation

Haunting, overwhelming and stangely hopeful
Video is no way to see Powaqqatsi or Koyaanisqatsi, seeing it on the big screen is the only way to capture Reggio's brilliant work. But if it is your only option, don't pass it up. I never imagined Reggio could follow up Koyaanisqatsi with such a gem...it gives me hope the third movie in the trilogy, Naqoyqatsi, will be as brilliant. Powaqqatsi shocks you out of the comfort of your safe middle class (or better) existence and reminds you that we are very much in the minority with our creature comforts. Yet, despite the haunting images and the curious juxtaposition of the Glass music, the film leaves you with courage that the human animal can rise above the harsh realities of the current state of our economically segregated world. These two movies changed my life. If you ever get a chance to see Glass perform the sound track live while he shows either move, don't miss it at any price. Now, where can I get my copy?

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Visual and Sonic Masterpiece
Another amazing film by Geoffrey Reggio, following up on the wonderful Koyaanisqatsi. While K was mostly landscapes, P has more shots of people. Both are essentially music videos: pictures and sound with no story. Both, however, do have a message about the qualities of modern life and some of its destructive potential. Score by Philip Glass is more world music than previous Glass scores, and has the same driving and evocative power that his score for K has. This film is visually stunning and like K should be seen on a large screen if possible, but still is powerful even on the smaller screen.

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A Film for Transforming Perceptions
Some reviewers have expressed confusion or displeasure over the message of this film. Having attended a question-and-answer session with the director, Godfrey Reggio, and having worked as an editor in the journalism field, I hope I can assist in interpretation. Here is mine in a nutshell: Exploitation produces poverty.

The principle that the filmmakers were seeking to illustrate was that while colonization comes in diverse forms, it is always destructive in the end -- even if the means are through economic domination rather than brute occupation. So-called "civilized" societies prey upon the Third World for their own gain, thereby ravaging the spirit of its people, depleting the natural resources of its nations, and tainting the uniqueness of its cultures.

The film reveals scenes that the U.S. media often fail to show -- the backbreaking labor and environmental destruction inflicted as offerings to the Almighty God of Profit. Worship at the altar of financial markets generates our wealth (the trilogy's first film, Koyaanisqatsi, covers technology- and consumer-based culture), yet as we acquire greater strength and contentment, our business practices shorten the life span and deteriorate the quality of life in weaker countries. The extraction and importation of their very vitality seems to be the fundamental wellspring for our Gross Domestic Product, essentially amounting to a lopsided transaction akin to parasitism.

For contrast, the music for the soundtrack incorporates energetic elements of this highly valued commodity from faraway lands: pounding rhythms, intricate phrases, meditative passages, foreign melodies, exotic harmonies, and even a dynamic children's chorus. This soundscape was intended to provide a sense of the heart and soul of the camera's subjects, i.e., the people in the images.

I highly recommend Powaqqatsi, especially since after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it presents renewed significance and compelling insight. After all, what do Americans perceive about other cultures and the ways we affect them? For example, would not a survey of natural-born U.S. citizens indicate that only a small percentage of us know more than three common first names from the Arabic world? And how many of us are familiar with the opinions that other nations' citizens hold about our activities in their countries? For that matter, are we fully informed about the actions abroad by our government and our companies? Although a single film can't completely fill in all the gaps in our awareness, Powaqqatsi does help bring to our attention that such voids exist.

As long as a lack of understanding and concern typifies the pursuit of "capitalism" and "freedom" by the world's greatest democracies, we should anticipate that this attitude will continue to cause suffering. Powaqqatsi is a call for compassion, the true front in civilization's ongoing "war on terror," otherwise known as the fight for humanity's survival.