‘Po.waq.qa.tsi (from the Hopi languauge, powaq sorcerer qatsi life) n., an entity, a way of life, that consumes the life forces of other beings in order to further its own life.’
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A deeply moving and illustrative documentary capturing human struggle in various parts of the world, Powaqqatsi is a series of images from all over the world working to expand your conciousness. It is the second documentary of the Qatsi Trilogy, released in 1988. I randomly got my hand over it while browsing through hmv.
The intention of the documentary is to contrast the daily life around the world by juxtaposition of ancient cultures with modern life. To most people grown in urban landscape in western world, any form of depravity in othe parts may seem easy to be termed as ´ancient culture´, however the images taken in the parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia are only partly cultural (images of harvest and nature festivals in communities) but capture more the toiling men, women and children in low esteem, exploitative and suffering conditions.
The images in movie bring you to a comprehension blink - take you to what resides inside by shaking you a little to discover an emotion and perhaps awaken.
My interpretation of these images 20 years after they were woven into a documentary tell a story of struggle between an urbanizing, consuming, and wasting way of life to smaller harvesting and self reliant traditional cultures. Capturing massive disturbance and changes in human values that define our relationship with each other, nature and our pursuit of happiness.
It is not as expansive in scope as Baraka, though it does not surprise me that the cinematographer - Ron Fricke is the same for the first Qatsi movie and Baraka. I am trying to get the other parts of the Qatsi trilogy. Interestingly a sequel to Baraka is due this year - Samsara.
