Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky.

[intertribal]

Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance is a 1982 purely visual cinematic film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by minimalist composer Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialog nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means 'life of moral corruption and turmoil, life out of balance', and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way.

Watch on YouTube

I've seen the movie and can attest that it's absolutely amazing. It has definitely helped shape my life philosophy. Interestingly, it's the sort of movie that everyone interprets differently. And yes, the music is great.

Comments

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

That looks amazing...

Interestingly, Hopi was the language that Whorf (of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, a.k.a. linguistic relativity, fame) was obsessed with. Okay, maybe not *the* language. He was obsessed with them in general. But it was one of his main examples of different conceptions of time, different ways of thinking, different culture being expressed linguistically (and in turn influencing or reinforcing the ways of thought, or so goes the hypothesis). Not that I'm a Whorfian exactly (it's complicated)--it's just interesting.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

oh, i see whorf is mentioned in your link, haha...

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

yeah, don't really know anything about that.

your title reminded me of this...

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

"The Spider Web

Waterdrinker, priest of the Sioux, dreamed that outlandish creatures were weaving a huge spider web around his people. He awoke knowing that was how it was going to be and said to his people, When this happens, you shall live in square gray houses, in a barren land, and beside those square gray houses you shall starve."

And, it continues with...

"The Prophet

Stretched out on his mat, the priest-jaguar of Yucatán listened to the gods' message. They spoke to him through the roof, sitting astride of his house, in a language that no one else knew.
Chilam Balam, he who was the mouth of the gods, remembered what had not yet happened:
"Scattered through the world shall be the women who sing and the men who sing and all who sing . . .No one will escape, no one will be saved . . .There will be much misery in the years of the rule of greed. Men will turn into slaves. Sad will be the face of the sun . . .The world will be depopulated, it will become small and humiliated . . ."

-Eduardo Galeano, Genesis

(I haven't finished it, but i do think it's an awesome book, and probably the following two are as well)

Re: your title reminded me of this...

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

that sounds cool. I mean, horrible, too.

Re: your title reminded me of this...

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a sort of literature-history of the 'new world'. The first part, which ends after that quote, is myths and legends of various tribes. the rest of it is more depressing. The trilogy as a whole is called Memory of Fire.