the Films of Godfrey Reggio

Godfrey Reggio is a true anomaly amongst filmmakers. Over the course of the past 25 years, he has enjoyed complete creative control over his films without having to be concerned about pleasing backers or dealing with the egos of actors. In that time, he has meticulously crafted four films (and a fifth to be released soon) of startling beauty, originality and depth.

Born in 1940, Reggio spent the first 14 years of his life in rural Louisiana. When he was fourteen, he entered preparations for the Christian Brothers Catholic brotherhood, and spent the next 14 years living in a monastery. He emerged from his orders in 1968, and began teaching school and working with rehabilitating members of street gangs. In 1975 he started experimenting with the idea of film as a tool for positive social change.

His first break came a year later when his 16mm film work attracted the interest of an "angel": an investor who looks for interesting enterprises to financially support. The next serendipity was to meet composer Philip Glass, whose work Reggio admired. Putting together clips of his cinematography with a recording of Glass' music for a special screening, Reggio persuaded Glass to enter into his first cinematic collaboration. This was titled Koyaanisqatsi, which in the Hopi language means "life out of balance". Reggio's intent was to explore the industrialized world's dislocation of values by showing the workings of the monuments and institutions we have constructed. Utilizing special cameras which allowed extremely slow or fast-motion shots, he showed life in the cities of the world juxtaposed against the forces of nature, and the spiritual lives of the Hopi people. Glass' score provided the pulse, although some considered it to be annoying or repetitive.

A friend of a friend arranged a screening of Koyaanisqatsi for Francis Ford Coppola, who was so impressed that he lent his name to the film as "presenter". With these high-profile supporters, Reggio convinced the normally conservative film distribution channels to release the film, and it became a commercial and critical success.

He followed this success five years later with the second installation in a trilogy, entitled Powaqqatsi, or "life in transition". The theme now became focused upon the effect of the industrialized world upon the individual. The cinemagraphic style now included many lingering shots of people's faces. Scenes showed ordinary people in "third-world" countries, especially India, toiling under demeaning and grueling conditions. Naturally, with putting faces upon the laborers exploited by the West, Reggio made many Westerners uncomfortable. Despite Glass' musical score being more symphonic and melodic than in the first film, Powaqqatsi did not fare as well at the box office as Koyaanisqatsi.

In 1991, Reggio released "Anima Mundi", a half-hour film focusing upon the animal world. By simply letting the daily lives of wild animals speak for themselves, he crafted an eloquent argument for their preservation. The cinematography, much of it in fluid slow motion, is breathtaking in its clarity and gracefulness.

In 1993, the clothing company Benetton invited Reggio to help form a school they were preparing to open near Venice. For the next three years, Reggio served as the school's director, and also made a short film entitled "Evidence" which looked at the effects of technology upon children.

Reggio has been at work for the past few years on the final installment of his "Qatsi" trilogy. It will be released sometime this year as "Naqoyqatsi", meaning "life as war". This time Reggio will explore the ways that mankind lives in a state of war, either in overt military warfare, or the more common and sublimated warfare against our higher nature. He has become more than an anomaly - he has trailblazed a new subgenre in film and has become the most eloquent conscience in cinema today.