5 - Birth, Life and Death, Along With A Need For Change

 by Gabrielle, Philippe and Franco

For over a hundred years, film has been a nexus of different kinds of arts, notably audio and visual forms. In the case of movies like “Samsara” (Ron Fricke, USA, 2012, 99 min.) or “Koyaanisqatsi” (Godfrey Reggio, USA, 1982, 86 min.), a different approach is taken to storytelling. The aforementioned base themselves more on images than dialogue as method of explanation. Within the next paragraphs we’ll go more in depth about “Samsara”, “Koyaanisqatsi” and how they connect and relate with each other.

The Eternal Cycle

The film “Samsara” brings us on a journey through the cycle of life as one big circle composed of many different circles. Through the 99 minute film you are brought through this cycle via a mix of images, sometimes intriguing (and at other times unsettling), sounds and music, all of which come together nicely. The images are filmed throughout the world we live in; with footage gathered from 100 locations spanning over 25 countries. The issues which the film tries to tell us about is depicted through the juxtaposition of the many images and sounds, from the beauty of nature, like the Epupa Falls, and destructive natural disaster like hurricane Katrina’s destruction of the New Orleans to our society’s unnatural human settings, notably electrical appliance factories in China and the sex dolls from Japan. This film was special and unique in a way that there was no dialogue and the only noticeable writing was graffiti on the wall separating Palestine and Israel, and numerals.

 http://revgarb.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/samsaraweb08.jpg

Our week’s topic was juxtaposition and storytelling; how images can tell a story when placed together, varying stories can be told depending on the images put together. In class we discussed the Kuleshov effect, the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axis, and the four dimensions of editing; all of which are present throughout the film. The Kuleshov is when images can determine the ambience or mood of the image that follows. In “Samsara” it is illustrated clearly throughout many scenes such as the scene where we see very primitive villages in Africa and afterwards a neutral gaze from the tribe’s men and women, which could easily be mistaken for sadness, which for all we know, they could be happy with their simple and primitive lives. Otherwise, an example is depicted in the scene following the Cebu Province Detention and Rehabilitation Centre in the Philippines; there’s footage of inmates performing dance choreography, many of them enthusiastic and enjoying the moment, followed by footage of the overcrowded prison cells, inmates giving the camera a neutral gaze, which deceives you at first into thinking they’re okay with the prison’s conditions, yet are they really? On another note, Ron Fricke does a great job in combining the paradigmatic (distinctive qualities of the images, the meaning behind them) and syntagmatic (relationship between the images, how they correspond with each other) relationships between footage. Portrayed in the scenes involving the people working menial jobs in the factories and office buildings, followed by the artist Olivier de Sagazan, seemingly loosing his sanity by covering himself with clay and “disfiguring” himself. It makes us think about how we live, why do many of us work mindlessly unfulfilling jobs, is it human to do so?

On the other hand, “Samsara” has some emphasis on the four dimensions of editing. Graphic relations (transitions related to the image’s shape, colour, dynamic, etc.), are presented when there’s footage of hurricane Katrina, showing us the destruction through the image of an overturned car, the following image is one of a car lodged under a house. Rhythmic relations (the length of what is shown on the screen, fast or slow, controls how long we can observe the images.), are shown when we see the people on their commute to work, “fast forwarded” to give the impression of how fast life passes by without us realising it. Spatial relations (relates two points in space through similarity, difference, or development of the story.), at the beginning of the movie, we see Buddhists working on a sand mandala, towards the end we see them again, finishing their work, likewise to Ron Fricke’s film coming towards its end. Lastly temporal relations (move back or forward in time, ellipsis, expand time, repeat events.), throughout some of the cycles in the film, we see some footage of the desert, bringing the viewer to the end, and also the beginning of the cycle.

Unbalanced Life 

The film “Koyaanisqatsi” tells the story of the world that we live in and the disasters which are created by ourselves. During the film, various images and clips are put together with no words and only music. These images demonstrate how we live and destroy our world. The images that are seen during the film are those of cities and natural landscapes in the United States. The story is put together by the juxtaposition of images and music. The word “Koyaanisqatsi” in Hopi language means “Unbalanced Life” which is seen in the film by the explosions caused by the missiles and the demolitions of the housings in St. Louis. It was a special and interesting film to watch because it only in images and music which makes people think more and an image could mean much more than words. The film shows the viewer a state of life that calls for another way of living and conveys to the viewer that the world we live in is out of balance, in turmoil and disintegrating.

The main issue that are raised and shown through the juxtaposition of the images and music is the self-destruction of the modern world. The way that we live as a society and by the actions that we perform, we have created a life that is out of balance and in turmoil. The film begins with images of the undisturbed nature, including the clouds, waterfalls, the calm waters, an overview of the forests, caves and rocks in the desert and the images demonstrate the immense space which humans used to have. The music during the images are calming and that of tribal singing which changes and becomes more upbeat orchestra music when the images change to that of fuel-driven machines and the man made buildings and technology. The images of the many cars, buildings, skyscrapers, highways, factories, tanks, missiles and planes shows how the humans have damaged, used up and cluttered the original landscape. The humans have self-destructed the world from the creations of mass destructions weapons and the expansion of new roads and buildings that have destroyed the landscapes and natural environment. The film moves into the city where the overwhelming amounts of people are walking through the streets, the cars are in traffic on the highways, the buildings are massive and the technology and machines are controlling the humans. The music during the images of the humans and city are more upbeat and rapid. The images continue by showing the food, technology and buildings while also the occasional individual that we find who seems lost, strange, confused and not comfortable in their own environment.

The dimensions of editing are seen during the film, such as the graphic relations which is demonstrated by the constant overview of the cities and desert, and the colors in the film are vibrant and bright. The rhythmic relations are shown on the screen when the cars and the people are moving fast while at times the screen is slowing which is seen when the people are walking and staring at the camera. The spatial relations are demonstrated by the nature scenes continued by the scenes of the cities and people and finished by explosions and humans attempt at leaving earth. The temporal relations are shown as at the beginning tribal writings were on the cave walls and at the end the same images are seen.

The issue of self-destruction is raised also during the images of explosions of buildings and bridges which are clearly done by the human being. These images illustrate what we have done to our environment and that we are damaging and destroying our landscapes.

The film ends with the attempted escape into space showing how we are trying to leave from the world that we are destroying. 

A reflection between the eternal and the unbalanced life  

We can learn much about ourselves through both films. Although, both movies don’t have any dialogue, they both teach us a lot about how humans are today and what were doing to the planet.

In the movie “Samsara”, it makes us realize that everything comes in a full circle, that everything is born and dies, hence the name. The first film teaches us that we should always put our 100% into everything we do because our life on earth should not be wasted and that we won't be here forever. “Samsara” also makes us realize that although we might think everything is permanent, it is not. We have to appreciate everything while it lasts because it will not be there forever. In the second movie “Koyaanisqatsi”, it teaches us that planet Earth is no longer pure because we are destroying the planet little by little. Before we came along with our evolved technology, the world was beautiful and undisturbed. But when we did arrive, we destroyed the pureness of the planet. 

Therefore, both movies have a very similar message. “Samsara” and “Koyaanisqatsi” informs us that we are loosing our humanity and our connection with nature every single day. Not only does it makes us think about how we don’t give a care in the world on how we treat the planet but how we are no longer doing what we should be doing. We are slowly letting ourselves go by letting machines breed our animals. We don’t even need to have human relationships with a human anymore because someone invented the sex doll.

The filmmakers of both movies did an excellent job at passing their messages around without having to say a single word. They did an amazing job by using music as a tool to explain every image that they were showing to us during the movie. The filmmakers also took advantage of the silence to help us understand what they were showing us. However, there were a few scenes in both movies that were hard to interpret because they weren’t as obvious as most of the other images in the films. They held deeper meaning and you really had to think to understand them.

They challenge our understanding of the world by showing us images on what’s really happening today.  Both films make us realize things we grew up to ignore and forget about like global warming. It also makes us think about things we probably wouldn’t have thought about. “Samsara” and “Koyaanisqatsi” changes our way of thinking by making us open our eyes to see what’s really happening in our world. We can relate the messages of both films to most of our everyday life experiences. Both movies showed us that our humanity is fading away because of our evolution of technology. When you walk down the street during summer, you no longer see as many kids as we used to playing outside. Instead, they are inside watching television or playing on their iPads. Although, kids are not the only ones, adults do the exact same thing. When you go to the gym, you see televisions everywhere for people to watch when they exercise or you even see people texting while they're working out. We use our evolving technology for everything like communication. This is one of the many examples that both movies try to inform us about. 

The films "Samsara" and "Koyaanisqatsi" are about the evolution of life and how human beings have effected the expansion and development of the world. "Samsara" is about the cycle of life which deals with natural disasters and damages caused by humans while Koyaanisqatsi is about the unbalance life which deals with the self-destructions caused by humans.