Jan suggested a similar one (Baraka), but I was going to say Koyaanisqatsi. It’s one of my favorite films; I still feel deeply affected by it. I bring it up here, though, because it does an excellent job of inviting viewers to do original seeing. It’s basically a 90 minute documentary about the world, but it doesn’t feel like it has any agenda. It’s just shot after shot of what this planet is like (the Grand Canyon, a commute to work, a factory farm). It doesn’t shy away from anything, doesn’t feel like it’s grasping at some goal. Just an honest, gentle look at what the world is like, and what humans are up to.
Part of the reason I say that it’s good at inviting original seeing is that it does a really excellent job of perspective modulation (especially wrt time). E.g., it’ll slow down or speed up processes in ways that made me pop out of how I normally relate to them. It lingers on features I wouldn’t normally wouldn’t linger on (like someone’s face) which turned it into this entirely new and strange experience. In general, it takes the mundane and makes it into something kind of glorious—a piece of the world to be marveled at, to be wondered at, a thing to be curious about.
But it’s not just mundanity either; it reminds you that you’re in a vast universe, on a planet that not too long ago didn’t contain you. It starts with a close up of a cave painting, and it ends with this haunting scene of a rocket falling down to Earth. And I remember really grokking, at the end of it, just how strange and just how powerful a thing intelligence is—the magnitude of what we’ve accomplished. I’d had that feeling before, but something about it really stayed with me after watching this film.
I hesitated between Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka! Both are some of my favorites, but in my view Koyaanisqatsi actually has notably more of an agenda and a more pessimistic outlook.
Jan suggested a similar one (Baraka), but I was going to say Koyaanisqatsi. It’s one of my favorite films; I still feel deeply affected by it. I bring it up here, though, because it does an excellent job of inviting viewers to do original seeing. It’s basically a 90 minute documentary about the world, but it doesn’t feel like it has any agenda. It’s just shot after shot of what this planet is like (the Grand Canyon, a commute to work, a factory farm). It doesn’t shy away from anything, doesn’t feel like it’s grasping at some goal. Just an honest, gentle look at what the world is like, and what humans are up to.
Part of the reason I say that it’s good at inviting original seeing is that it does a really excellent job of perspective modulation (especially wrt time). E.g., it’ll slow down or speed up processes in ways that made me pop out of how I normally relate to them. It lingers on features I wouldn’t normally wouldn’t linger on (like someone’s face) which turned it into this entirely new and strange experience. In general, it takes the mundane and makes it into something kind of glorious—a piece of the world to be marveled at, to be wondered at, a thing to be curious about.
But it’s not just mundanity either; it reminds you that you’re in a vast universe, on a planet that not too long ago didn’t contain you. It starts with a close up of a cave painting, and it ends with this haunting scene of a rocket falling down to Earth. And I remember really grokking, at the end of it, just how strange and just how powerful a thing intelligence is—the magnitude of what we’ve accomplished. I’d had that feeling before, but something about it really stayed with me after watching this film.
Astronaut.io
Just discovered an absolute gem. Thank you so much.
I hesitated between Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka! Both are some of my favorites, but in my view Koyaanisqatsi actually has notably more of an agenda and a more pessimistic outlook.