KOYAANISQATSI
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
This 1982 film – a bizarre, bold favorite of mine – has a title that comes from a Hopi Indian phrase and translates, roughly, to “life out of balance.” It comes from a time when extreme time-lapse photography was relatively new, and the purpose of director Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi was to capture images from unexpected angles at unusual speeds. Urban traffic grids were shot from above and sped up greatly, making the lights from cars look like scurrying ants. Clouds were filmed from above, too, and speeding them up made them look eerily like waves. Other things, from rocket launches to volcano eruptions, were slowed down to a barely kinetic pace – all of it scored to perfectly matched music by Philip Glass. If you’ve never seen it, don’t miss it. You won’t forget it. I haven’t, and it’s been almost 40 years. Happy Earth Day!