Koyaanisqatsi[b] is a 1982 American non-narrative documentary film directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio, featuring music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.

The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage (some of it in reverse) of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States.

It opens with an ancient cave painting, followed by a close-up of a rocket launch, while a deep bass voice chants the film's title.

This segues into footage of reservoirs, cultivated flowers, surface mining, electrical power infrastructure, evaporation ponds, oil drilling, blast furnaces, and concludes with a nuclear weapons test forming a mushroom cloud over the desert.

The next sequence begins with an introduction that shows time-lapse footage of sunsets reflected in the façades of skyscrapers, wide shots of cities at night with vehicle lights moving fast along streets and freeways, and the moon disappearing behind a building.

The rhythm of the music increases while time-lapse footage in cities show vehicles driving, crowds of people walking, shopping centers, factories, food processing plants, and channel surfing.

The final sequence features various individuals of all social classes, some of whom look directly into the camera, accompanied by Hopi prophecies sung in the soundtrack.

As the film's title is chanted in a deep voice, a rocket is launched and explodes shortly after take-off; the camera follows its debris as it falls back towards Earth.

In 1972, Godfrey Reggio, of the Institute for Regional Education (IRE), was working on a media campaign in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Instead of making public service announcements, which Reggio felt "had no visibility", advertising spots were purchased for television, radio, newspapers, and billboards.

[15] Over thirty billboards were used for the campaign, and one design featured a close-up of the human eye, which Reggio described as a "horrifying image",[16] To produce the television commercials the IRE hired cinematographer Ron Fricke, who worked on the project for two years.

[15] Godfrey described the two-year campaign as "extraordinarily successful", and as a result, Ritalin (methylphenidate) was eliminated as a behavior-modifying drug in many New Mexico school districts.

[16] But after the campaign ended, the ACLU eventually withdrew its sponsorship, and the IRE unsuccessfully attempted to raise millions of dollars at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C.

Reggio was not on location in Times Square when Fricke shot the footage and thought the idea of shooting portraits of people was "foolish".

They felt such footage was "the language [they] were missing", and collectively decided to implement time-lapse as a major part of the film to create "an experience of acceleration".

The system was powered by a gel cell battery that lasted for twelve hours, which enabled Fricke to shoot without the use of a generator.

[22] The time-lapse shot overlooking the freeway in Los Angeles was filmed from the top of a building through a double exposure, with ten-second delay between frames.

Before shooting The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1983), Coppola requested to see Koyaanisqatsi, and Reggio arranged a private screening shortly after its completion.

[28] Coppola also decided to introduce and end the film with footage of pictographs from the Great Gallery at Horseshoe Canyon in Utah after visiting the site and becoming fascinated by the ancient sandstone murals.

Glass's music for the film is a highly recognizable example of the minimalist school of composition, which is characterized by heavily repeated figures, simple structures, and a tonal (although not in the traditional common practice sense of the word) harmonic language.

[1] In the score by Philip Glass, the word "koyaanisqatsi" is chanted at the beginning and end of the film in an "otherworldly"[37] dark, sepulchral basso profondo by singer Albert de Ruiter over a solemn, four-bar organ-passacaglia bassline.

During the end titles, the film gives Jacques Ellul, Ivan Illich, David Monongye, Guy Debord, and Leopold Kohr credit for inspiration.

[39] While the NYFF was based in the Lincoln Center, an exception was made to screen Koyaanisqatsi at the larger Radio City Music Hall due to the film's "spectacular visual and sound quality".

Select theaters distributed a pamphlet that defined the title and the Hopi prophecies sung in the film, as well as a copy of the soundtrack from Island Records.

[42] The producers spent $6,500 on marketing the initial release, which grossed $46,000 throughout its one-week run, and was the highest-grossing film in the San Francisco Bay Area that week.

[53] In December 2012, Criterion released a remastered DVD and Blu-ray of Koyaanisqatsi, as part of a box set containing the Qatsi Trilogy.

The release features 5.1 surround sound audio and a restored digital transfer of the film in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, approved by director Godfrey Reggio.

The website's critical consensus reads "Koyaanisqatsi combines striking visuals and a brilliant score to produce a viewing experience that manages to be formally daring as well as purely entertaining.

"[55] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

[57] Czech pedagogue Rudolf Adler, in his textbook for film educators, describes Koyaanisqatsi as "formulated with absolute precision and congenial expression.