Powaqqatsi **** (1988, director Godfrey Reggio) – Classic Movie Review 10,148

Director Godfrey Reggio’s 1988 documentary Powaqqatsi is the very welcome sequel to Koyaanisqatsi (1982), with another extraordinary Philip Glass score.

It is a collage of scenes of cultures around the globe, showing how the Third World, with its traditional harmony, is being exploited by the developed countries.

Powaqqatsi is absorbing, beautifully filmed and full of remarkable, sometimes startling images, though not quite as exciting as its great predecessor, but still mesmerisingly compelling.

Moving on from Koyaanisqatsi’s ‘a life out of balance’, the themes this time are the global North-South divide and what the director sees as ‘a life in transformation’.

It is written by Godfrey Reggio and Ken Richards. It is one of the last films produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus’s Cannon group. Their support and bravery did not pay off. It cost $2,500,000 and grossed $589,244 in the US.

It is followed by Naqoyqatsi (2002).

Powaqqatsi is a Hopi Indian expression that means ‘parasitic way of life’ or ‘life in transition’.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,148

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