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.
Theatrical release poster
Grand Central Terminal in New York City is shown several times in the film.
The demolition of the Pruitt–Igoe housing project in St. Louis, Missouri, was one of the early scenes filmed once production began in 1975.
Godfrey Reggio, director of Koyaanisqatsi and the other films in the Qatsi trilogy
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.
Viking Eggeling. Drei momente des Horizontal-Vertikalorchesters. c 1921. From De Stijl, vol. 4, nr, 7 (July 1921): facing p. 112.
Four frames from "Diagonal-Symphonie"
Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera, Opening shot, 1929
Photographer and filmmaker Man Ray (pictured here in 1934) was part of the Dadaist "cinema pur" film movement, which influenced the development of art film.