“Once Within A Time” – Interview with Godfrey Reggio by John Malkin (Originally broadcast in May, 2023 on KZSC 88.1 FM on “Transformation Highway”)
Godfrey Reggio is a radical, experimental film director and activist. In 1982 Reggio’s film Koyaanisqatsi (“Life Out of Balance”) was a first of its kind, using imagery and music to explore our modern fast-paced way of life based on consumerism, capitalism, militarism and technology. Reggio brings a humanist perspective that highlights the destruction of indigenous cultures worldwide. Reggio later produced Powaqqatsi (“Life in Transformation”) and Naqoyqatsi (“War as a Way of Life”) and all three in the QATSI trilogy feature music by Philip Glass. Some of his other films include “Anima Mundi” (1992), “Evidence” (1995) and “Visitors” (2013). Godfrey Reggio is a former Christian Brothers monk and is now 83 years old.
Reggio’s films are influenced by his earlier activism with street gangs in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a series of ACLU ad campaigns in the 1970’s critical of mass surveillance and media control. In Santa Fe, Reggio was a founder of The Institute for Regional Education, La Clinica de la Gente and Young Citizens for Action.
Reggio’s new film is titled “Once Within a Time” which he describes as a “Kiddieqatsi” and an anarchic comedy without words. “Once Within a Time” took nine years to complete and is scheduled to be released by indie film distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories in the fall of 202s following its premiere as part of the New York Museum of Modern Art’s film series “Total Cinema of Sight and Sound: Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass,” which runs September 26 to October 4, 2023.