An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Score
Philip Glass at his most relentless and transcendent
Cinematography
Ron Fricke's time-lapse sorcery — mining, traffic, faces blurring together
Editing
The mining sequence will tattoo itself on your retinas
Director
Godfrey Reggio
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The title comes from Hopi: 'powaqa' meaning sorcerer or parasitic spirit, 'qatsi' meaning life. Reggio learned it wasn't a real word — he made it up combining elements.
Reggio shot in 12 countries including Brazil, Kenya, India and Egypt, but the film's 'developing nations' framing has been criticized as itself colonial — the Western gaze cataloging the exotic other in decay.
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