Powaqqatsi is the second part of the Qatsi Trilogy. In 1983 Koyaanisqatsi mainly dealt with the environmental degradation of American industrial cities. The second film, whose title refers to the Indian sorcerer and to “qatsi" which means life, focuses on the active source of disharmony and perversion in human life and takes a look at the third world, the main victim of this situation. The initial sequence is dedicated to a group of Africans exhausted by inhuman work. The subsequent sequences move from Asia, to India, to the Middle East, to South America in a contradictory and polemical alternation of images with the "first world", in particular Paris and Berlin.
The measured rhythm of work in the fields. Shadows dancing on a wheat field become breaths of wind that caress meadows, which in turn change into a mirror of sea water, which placidly reflects the sunlight between its meshes. Integration of man with the environment, "effective" solidarity between people in an environmental context that dictates unwritten rules, simple, spontaneous meetings, which become traditions and customs of a people. There is no affectation, there is participation. A train bursts into the scene, showing the impetus of the obsessive repetition of its 'path', panoramic views from above of a city highlight only the shadow of the beauty of the arrangement of primitive constructions, a lateral panorama does nothing but highlight the repetitiveness and coldness of modern buildings. A child observes hypnotized neon signs lit up like stars in the night. The sky and the horizon have disappeared, replaced by the thousand details of the city. Fire, flames, in the most absolute lack of respect towards nature and people, an era is forged where hope is a credit tied to Visa/Mastercard cards.
The soundtrack by Philip Glass is richer and more varied than that of Koyaanisqatsi and is the result of research into Brazilian, Peruvian and African music. Glass uses indigenous instruments and voices and also inserts natural sound effects: the noise of waterfalls, the whistle of a locomotive. The peculiarity of the soundtrack consists in the fact that it underlines the utopian concept of "global culture".
