Godfrey Reggio

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Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, he is most known for his Qatsi trilogy, which includes the films Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi. Reggio spent fourteen years in training to be a monk before abandoning that path and making the films; he has since been involved in many progressive political causes in the United States, including work for the American Civil Liberties Union. Cinematographer on most of his films is Ron Fricke, who directed the film Baraka.

Quotations

About the Qatsi films: "It's not that we use technology, we live technology. Technology has become as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, so we are no longer conscious of its presence. So what I decided to do in making these films is to rip out all the foreground of a traditional film--the foreground being the actors, the characterization, the plot, the story--I tried to take the background, all of that that's just supported like wallpaper, move that up into the foreground, make that the subject, ennoble it with the virtues of portraiture, and make that the presence."

About the computer: "The utopia of the technological order is virtual immortality. Hitheretofore only ascribed to the gods, to the divinity. Now we have a new , the computer sits in the middle of it, the computer not being a sign, is the most powerful instrument in the world in that it produces what it signifies, it produces this globalization, in that sense it is the highest magic in the world, and something we are all in admiration of."

About the creation of art: "In terms of the feeling of the piece, I cant think about what people are gonna think about it, what are the critics gonna say, I’m trying to bring some resolution, and realize that myself. It’s a struggle; it’s a process that gets us this. It’s not like, I do write a scenario, and I do have a point of view, but at a certain point the words have to just disappear off the page as the image and the sound become that which you are responding to and it tells you how to shape it, it speaks to you, you're trying to stay in touch with it, which you’ve helped to create."

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