NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - As part of its monthly independent film series, the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of "Koyaanisqatsi" at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House.
"Koyaanisqatsi" is Godfrey Reggio's debut as a film director and producer. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds - urban life and technology versus the environment.
"'Koyaanisqatsi' is the first of three films made by Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass known as the Qatsi Trilogy," said Richard Orton, chairman of the Friends of the Visual Arts' First Friday Film committee. "We presented the second of the films, 'Powaqqatsi,' last year and will most likely present the third film, 'Naqoyqatsi,' during the 2012-2014 school year.
"What is most striking about each of these films is how they challenge us to view our world from a very different perspective," Orton said, " … without a verbal narrative, with only Reggio's images and Glass' music to create an intellectual and emotional frame of reference."
"Koyaanisqatsi" is "an animated object, an object moving in time, the meaning of which is up to the viewer," Reggio is quoted at the website www.koyaanisqatsi.org.
This 86-minute film has no rating. It has garnered numerous awards at various film festivals, including awards for best documentary, best music, audience awards and others.
The First Friday Film Series is sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Junior Forum.
The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. in downtown Nacogdoches. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.
Axe ’Em, Jacks!