better 2nd time watching it

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I completely agree, the first time I watched it I was quite bored, yawning and looking at my watch.

The second time I watched it, I liked it a lot more.

To all those people dissapointed, just watch it for a second time. Don't compare it with the first two parts, switch of your intellectual mode and just enjoy the images and the music.

Yes

Great art takes time to understand and appreciate. Many people are not concious of what they are seeing/hearing for the first time. You refer to the music. It is the award winning classical minimalist Philip Glass in all three of the trio of Qatsi films. See Fog of War and Glass takes the Oscar for his soundtrack in The Hours.

Read or see film documentary of Robert Hughes Shock of the New or Jerry Manders book, The Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.

Mark Seibold, Artist-Astronomer, Portland Oregon

Was a joint involved in your second viewing?

As an accomplished artist of observational astronomy to some degree, I appreciate many of the great accomplished artists in our world. I have also produced award winning and worldwide published night sky photography that has been commissioned into many successful venues. I have worked as an actor on professional motion film sets.

I can say that I appreciate your change of mind after the repeated viewing of Naqoyqatsi. It says something about what we have heard so many times over the millenniums. Many people who say, look at a Picasso or Pollock painting for the first time, conservatives that balked in 1964 at the Beatles music, the uneducated in the world of art and art history, usually express a repulsion upon their first views of this misunderstood art or its prime intention.
Many renaissance artists’ masterpiece works were terribly criticized by the general uneducated proletariat when first unveiled.

Another good example is that many people were reported to have walked out of the theaters in 1969 in the first 15 minutes of showing Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Many of those people never went back to complete the viewing of that film in their lifetime. I can tell you that I have conducted my own studies of this- Those people who walked out were found to be very narrow minded and not educated in the arts- Simply put, they are not artists and thus trying to educate them in this arena would be to no avail. They do not have the patience to understand nor would they want to. Many are ultra-conservative in their views [read- they have neurotic fears and terrible misinterpretations about the world and our existence the universe.] They would do better to stick to Hallmark movies and avoid fine art museums. Evening prime-time TV sit-coms should be advised for them. Maybe they should stick to Ted Turner colorized versions of great black & white classics?

These people are deeply disturbed by intense art and they may misunderstand it to a great degree. And herein lies the precise intention of these films by great directors like Godfrey Reggio, the portrait photography of Richard Avedon, or the surreal paintings of Salvador Dali- All of these artist have stated that great art must disturb. I agree with that statement and that is also my personal intention in my art- Great art makes great statements about life and humanity that can disturb many people, especially those which possess a weak understanding of real life and culture. It is not the intention of these great artists [or motion film makers] to only exist for your personal entertainment or personal gratification to compare one particular movie with another as to which one you think is the better because only you misunderstood it.

What bothers me in many online sites that allow random comments is that anyone can simply log in and write meaningless comments about great cinematography film art that did not pander to their personally distorted desires, music or an artist’s work in general, without showing us their professional credentials or arts education.

Naqoyqatsi has the great potential to teach, where other directors motion film works have only served to fall pitifully short to entertain the mundane of our world with useless banal imagery. I would advise those who can only understand the mundane, to seek lesser objectives in life- Perhaps they will learn something about what great art is. They might return here one day to announce that they finally woke up after some arts education was pursued.

I would invite anyone who wrongfully criticizes any of Reggio’s film work as not living up to their personal standards, to show us your artwork and what it has done to make a great and meaningful statement for others to learn from as all of Godfrey Reggio’s films coupled along with the thought provoking genius of Philip Glass’s music have made great statements about humanity and our modern world in many ways that will live forever in the motion film history volumes.

Mark Seibold, Retired IT Tech, Artist-Astronomy Educator, Portland Oregon