unbalanced life

Today I watched an entire movie for the first time since before all of this began. I sat on the couch, during the day, and watched this movie, a documentary, alongside my two kids and my partner, who took occasional breaks from his inaugural sourdough dough prep of quarantine to watch with us. It’s easy; the tv is about 10 feet from the kitchen.

The film is called Koyaanisqatsi. It is incredible and I won’t try to critique or recap it here, I’ll just tell you that you can watch it on TCM; it’s there until April 30th. Play it loud, maybe even in headphones.

What I will say is that it’s quite an experience to watch a film like this in this moment. The language-lessness, the music (the score is by Philip Glass), the texture and speed of the images resonate deeply. They tell a story of this moment, though the movie was released in 1982, the year my sister was born. I was four.

The title of the film is a word borrowed from the Hopi language meaning “unbalanced life.”

In the epilogue, the screen flashes two cards:

Crazy life, check.

Life in turmoil, check.

Life out of balance, check.

Life disintegrating, check.

A state of life that calls for another way of living. Yes.