'Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance': Wyatt Hodgson Condenses Godfrey Reggio's Film To 5 Minutes (VIDEO)

When American director and documentary filmmaker Godfrey Reggio created the experimental film "Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance" in 1982, he said it was open for interpretation. 30 years later and visual artist Wyatt Hodgson did just that, compressing the original 82 minutes into a mere five by speeding the movie up by 1552 percent.

The original film is a collage of video footage shot between 1975 and 1982, set to a score composed by Philip Glass, with no dialogue or verbal narration. Koyaanisqatsi, meaning "unbalanced life," comes from the language of the Hopi, an indigenous Native American tribe. This theme of incongruity can be seen through the both the original and remake of the film in the contrasting clips; from sweeping shots of canyons to congested highways to the launch of space shuttles.

This battle between nature and technology is evident, though Reggio refused to make an official statement on the message of the film.

"The film's role is to provoke, to raise questions that only the audience can answer," Reggio is quoted on the film's website. "This is the highest value of any work of art, not predetermined meaning, but meaning gleaned from the experience of the encounter."

Hodgson not only encountered the film, but made it his own. The percentage faster, 1552, is not random. A book documenting the mistreatment of indigenous people, "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies," was published in 1552.

In addition to the statement, he stripped the soundtrack, adding "The Holy Egoism of Genius" by The Art of Noise in its place. The result is a five minute, fast-paced, non sequential portrait of the world 30 years ago. Hodgson's piece is a surreal snapshot of an already surreal documentary about a time now long gone, but just as relevant today.

Watch below for the remake of "Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance." The full-length original can be watched on the film's IMDB page.

Balance Out of Life from Wyatt Hodgson on Vimeo.

Comments

[Jane Gozenpud]

08:28 PM on 04/25/2012

Check out the Give Godfrey Reggio the Colbert Bump on Facebook...For all you fans! ; )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Give-Godfrey-Reggio-The-Colbert-Bump/148776208466253

[goldandmudd]

05:12 PM on 02/08/2012

What, Koyaanisqatsi wasn't action packed enough for you so you had to edit it down to a clip? And you took out the beautiful music written by Philip Glass in collaboration with Regio and added some crappy beats and internet bleep music. Congrats. You made something really beautiful and intense the YouTube clip of the day.

[garystartswithg]

11:32 AM on 02/08/2012

The Holy Egoism of Genius has a very different message than Koyaaniskatsi. Its kind of an awkward fit, as its about creating art, then showing you our culture of flotsam.
What amazed me most is the country hasn't evovled in 30 yrs except the occasional hairstyle and all those jobs shipped overseas (thank you Steve Jobs), and nobody is walking while texting on their smart phone. If you went back 30 more yrs to the 50s the change would be drastic.

[seckhoff]

09:37 AM on 02/08/2012

Nice film. So how come the music is so awful?

[MichaelFroemel]

06:45 AM on 02/08/2012

Almost better than the original.

[JScott]

10:39 PM on 02/07/2012

Same appearance in 5 min, Art Of Noise sound track about Debussy (forgot the album name, but it was back when there was lotsa recording stores with CD's). Watch this if you can't watch the 82 min one-kinda the same except of course the original Phillip Glass soundtrack.

[darkmark]

04:16 PM on 02/07/2012

if, globally, we consume 5% more this year than last and do that every year, growing GPD, how can the earth heal itself? what are the obvious results?

[PathofTotality]

03:13 PM on 02/07/2012

I remember watching Koyaanisqatsi when it came out (or soon there after) and was inthralled. I remember one specific part of a rocket launch and the camera filming one of the pieces falling back to earth. It was done in slow motion so for about 2-3 minutes it just looked like a piece of metal tumbling but floating in air.....but you knew it was falling. Haven't watched the 5 minute version yet but I do like Art of Noise.