1-When do you think the film was made? Why is the production date significant?
The film was made over six years, three of them spent in shooting and three of them working on the music. It was released in 1983.
The production date is significant because that is the context the film is responding to. The film responds to many controversial projects undertaken in the preceding decades. In the 1960’s Glenn Canyon Dam created Lake Powell, shown in the film. Pruit-Igoe was a large urban housing project completed in 1955 and torn down in 1972. The demolition could be seen as a symbol of the end of modern architecture. People were probably reflecting on whether they were really making progress (one of the underlying ideas of the Modernist movement).
2-How is nature represented?
Nature is a resource which our current systems survive off of. We use it. Kayaanisqatsi means “life out of balance” in the Hopi language. The new nature is out of balance. Near the beginning of the film are shots of pictographs. Then we see a desert landscape with rock formations. A few shots later we see a similar desert landscape with rock formations, now covered with water. This is lake Powell and the rock formations and culture contained there within (pictographs) are now drown by this water.
Nature is used for mass-agriculture, mining, and bomb detonations among others. We see water in the film and we see how its power is tapped with dams. Land and air are polluted by industrial gases and discarded material.
Technology has become part of the landscape, in some cases dominating it. For example, power lines in the foreground of the film look large relative to the scale of the desert. Combine their heavy weight in the picture with the maniacal sounding music and the message is clear that we are throwing off some natural balance.
3-How are people represented?
People are represented as existing in the new nature and being oblivious to its realities. They are unaware of the effects of the systems they create and live within. For example, some people are shown sunbathing on a beach. Then the camera pans upward to reveal a nuclear power plant towering above them (San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station in southern California). They seem unaffected by the presence of a system in which a nuclear reaction takes place which produces the same amount of energy as the bombs shown in other frames of the movie.
People are surrounded by technology. They are shown in cars, in front of planes and trains, in front of the electric lights of Las Vegas, in busy cities, and inside of heavy industrial equipment. Technology is a ubiquitous reality, the new natural environment.
4-What is the role of humankind in the film?
Humankind seems to create and operate within a system of self-created circuitry. They race around the system at a constantly accelerating pace. They don’t actually make progress. Shots of computer chips immediately proceed aerial shots of cities, encouraging a comparison.
Time lapse photography showing transportation centers and freeways speeds up the activities of humans. We don’t know these anonymous people so we can not possibly know where they are going and why it may be important. Combine that with the fact that they are shown moving faster than in real time, and they look like they are racing around pointlessly.
5-What is (re)presented? How?
Nature and architecture are two things that are (re)presented.
Nature is represented as a system with balance and rhythms. The sun moves over a rock arch and the moths follow it. Day and night are naturally light and dark.
Architecture is shown in contrast, as a grid, which needs to be lit by artificial light so the occupants can work at any hour. The lights in the buildings turn on and off, at different times, on different floors, never all off at once, like the light from the sun as it circles the earth.
6-What is the objective/agenda of the film?
The objective/agenda is for people to devalue industry, be aware of themselves, and slow down. The film seems to say that we are off rhythm and out of balance with nature. Technology has become too ubiquitous. It affects our motion over the earth, our diet, our employment, and our leisure time. We are unaware we are slaves to a system we are creating. Are our lives better because of it? Is the planet better because of it. This film says no.
7-Do you recognize any of the places shown in the film?
I haven’t visited all the places in the film but I recognize some of them. Having lived in Utah and visited Canyonlands National Park, I recognize the shadow figures pictographs from images, although I haven’t seen them in person. I also recognized the image of Lake Powell.
8-Who/what is NOT represented?
People enjoying nature with the help of technology are not represented. For example, hikers, surfers, campers, skiers, and kayakers are not seen.
Architecture which houses a family, and provides warmth and privacy is not seen.
A person who is sitting with their family after being given a longer life after receiving a kidney transplant is not seen. An anxious bloody hand with an i.v. is seen which is only comforted by direct human touch.
9-What does the film have to do with:
Politics? It has a pro-environment, anti-industry agenda and supports people and parties in favor of these causes. It influences people to favor these causes by the way it frames nature, technology, and people.
Culture? It frames our culture in a way which may cause us to examine our values. It shows us staring in awe at skyscrapers and also the water which covered up ancient art.
Architecture? Our steel superstructures are destroying our natural rhythms and mining earth’s resources. They destroy our natural rhythms. Also, it seems to be a waste of material. A huge housing development was demolished 16 years after construction, which failed to solve or even help our social problems.
Power? The machines seem to have the power and we are a slave to their patterns. For example, navigating traffic and sorting bologna and Twinkies are how some people spend their days doing repetitive actions, pushing and pulling, stopping and starting.
Technology/science? Inspires awe but is really disintegrating value in our lives.
