Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
Godfrey Reggio is an American director of experimental documentary films.
Powaqqatsi is a 1988 American non-narrative film directed by Godfrey Reggio and the sequel to Reggio's experimental 1982 film, Koyaanisqatsi. It is the second film in The Qatsi Trilogy, which was followed by Naqoyqatsi (2002).
Naqoyqatsi is a 2002 American non-narrative film directed by Godfrey Reggio and edited by Jon Kane, with music composed by Philip Glass. It is the third and final installment in the Qatsi trilogy.
Baraka is a 1992 American non-narrative documentary film directed by Ron Fricke. The film is often compared to Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the Qatsi films by Godfrey Reggio for which Fricke served as cinematographer. It was photographed in the 70 mm Todd-AO format, and is the first film ever to be restored and scanned at 8K resolution.
The Philip Glass Ensemble is an American musical group founded by composer Philip Glass in 1968 to serve as a performance outlet for his experimental minimalist music. The ensemble continues to perform and record to this day, under the musical direction of keyboardist Michael Riesman.
The Qatsi trilogy is a series of three non-narrative films produced by Godfrey Reggio and scored by Philip Glass. The trilogy includes Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988), and Naqoyqatsi (2002).
Anima mundi is a Latin phrase meaning "the soul of the world"
Teargas & Plateglass are a band who produce electronica, dark ambient and drone music with accompanying videos. NME classified their music as "illbient", "ambient for sick people".
Koyaanisqatsi 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 of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. Reggio explained the lack of dialogue by stating "it's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live." In the Hopi language, the word koyaanisqatsi means "life out of balance".
Jon Kane is an American film editor, director, and DJ based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York.
Francis Kuipers, also known as Superguitar, is a British-Dutch composer, guitarist and ethno-musicologist domiciled in Italy. In the 1960s he began creating a unique archive of music and sounds, as well as making field recordings in Australasia, Africa, the Seychelles, India and Nepal, the Philippines and North America. He has completed numerous solo tours and played in duos with Antonello Salis, Massimo Urbani, Luis Agudo, Enrico Micheletti, Joe Garceau, Janet Smith, and Champion Jack Dupree, amongst others. In the 1980s he was guitarist for Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso. In Italy he is best known for his guest appearance on the tour of Francesco de Gregori in 1989, and for his many performances at the Folkstudio of Rome. From 1995 to 1998 he directed the department of Music and Sound at Fabrica, the multi-media research center founded by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani at Treviso. He has collaborated with Godfrey Reggio on the films Anima Mundi, Evidence, Naqoykatsi with the music of Philip Glass and has composed the original music scores for Mary, Napoli Napoli Napoli, Go Go Tales with the voice of Grace Jones, and 4:44 The Last Day on Earth directed by Abel Ferrara.
The Truman Show: Music from the Motion Picture is a soundtrack to the 1998 film of the same name and was composed by Burkhard Dallwitz. Dallwitz was hired after Peter Weir received a tape of his work while in Australia for the post-production. Some parts of the soundtrack were composed by Philip Glass, including four pieces which appeared in his previous works. Glass also appears very briefly in the film as one of the in-studio composer/performers. Glass and Dallwitz won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score.
Non-narrative film is an aesthetic of cinematic film that does not narrate, or relate "an event, whether real or imaginary". It is usually a form of art film or experimental film, not made for mass entertainment.
Visitors is a 2013 American documentary film, written and directed by Godfrey Reggio.
Mel Lawrence was an American film director and producer and former concert and festival promoter. He is best known for his role as the Director of Operations at the Woodstock Festival, his work on the Qatsi Trilogy, and for directing and producing the Emmy-nominated documentary Paha Sapa: The Struggle for the Black Hills.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a 2018 American documentary film about the lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama. It is directed by RaMell Ross and produced by RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, and is Ross's first nonfiction feature. The documentary is the winner of 2018 Sundance Film Festival award for U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision, 2018 Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Cinema Eye Honors Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. After its theatrical run, it aired on the PBS series Independent Lens and eventually won a 2020 Peabody Award.
Minimalist cinema is related to the art and philosophy of minimalism.
