Godfrey Reggio

Godfrey Reggio is an inventor of a film style which creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his QATSI trilogy, essays of visual images and sound which chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment.
Born in New Orleans in 1940 and raised in Louisiana, Reggio spent 14 years in a Roman Catholic religious order of men (the Christian Brothers) —living in community, dedicated to prayer, study, and teaching. Based in New Mexico during the 1960’s, Reggio taught school, lectured, and co-founded Young Citizens for Action, a community organization project of that aided juvenile street gangs. Following this, Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente, a Santa Fe community medical center, and La Gente, a community organizing project in the Northern New Mexico's barrios. In 1972, he co-founded the Institute for Regional Education in Santa Fe, a non-profit foundation focused on media development, the arts, community organization and research.
Koyanisqatsi, Reggio's debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the Qatsi  trilogy. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds - urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass.
Powaqqatsi, Reggio's second film, conveys a humanist philosophy about the encroachment of technology on nature and ancient cultures, and the splendor that disappears as a result. The film focuses on the modern way of life and the concept of the Global Village, entwining the distinctive textures of ancient and Third World cultures. Powaqqatsi was co-written, co-produced and directed by Reggio and composed by Philip Glass between 1985 and 1987.
In 1991 Reggio directed Anima Mundi, a film commissioned by Bvlgari, the Italian jewelry company, for the World Wide Fund for Nature which used the film for its Biological Diversity Program. Accompanied by the music of Philip Glass, the twenty-eight minute Anima Mundi is a montage of intimate images of over seventy animal species that celebrates the magnificence and variety of the world's fauna.
In 1993, Reggio was invited to develop a new school of exploration and production in the arts, technology, and mass media being founded by the Benetton company. Called Fabbrica - Future, Presente, it opened in May, 1995, in Treviso, Italy, just outside Venice. While service as the initial director of the school through 1995, Reggio co-authored the 7 minute film Evidence which provides another point of view to observe the subtle but profound effects of modern living on children.
In  2002 Naqoyqatsi, the final film of the Qatsi trilogy was released.
Currently Reggio is a frequent lecturer on philosophy, technology and film. He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.