Beyond Narrative and Plot: Godfrey Reggio’s “Visitors” as an Example of Non-fiction “Avant-doc” Cinema. Typologies of Documentary Filmmaking
Piotr Zawojski
piotr.zawojski@us.edu.plUniversity of Silesia (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2291-0446
Abstract
In Visitors (2013), Godfrey Reggio uses the fundamental formal procedures characteristic of his authorial style: the alternation of slow-motion and time-lapse cinematography and the synergic relationship between the images and Philip Glass’s music, which constitutes a kind of rhythmic score that determines the final editing. Although the film can be seen as another part of the Qatsi trilogy, making it a tetralogy, one should, at the same time, remain aware that it differs significantly from the filmmaker’s earlier works. The author considers Visitors as an example of a non-narrative avant-doc formula, combining the traditions of avant-garde and documentary cinema. Reading Reggio’s film makes him rethink non-narrative moving image art forms and the position of the viewer – not as a recipient of the stories presented to him, but as someone who is the producer of meaning and – in fact – becomes a storyteller himself.
Keywords:
Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, avant-doc, non-narrative film, experimental filmReferences
Campbell, C. (2023, 14 czerwca). Godfrey Reggio on „Visitors”: Making a Special Effects-driven Documentary and Slow Motion versus Time-Lapse. NonFics.com. https://nonfics.com/godfrey-reggio-on-visitors-making-a-special-effects-driven-documentary-and-slow-motion-versus-time-9461feea6757
Google Scholar
Chang, C. (2014). Beautiful Relationships: The Reggio-Glass „Qatsi” Trilogy – Part Four?. Film Comment, (1), s. 16.
Google Scholar
Dempsey, M. (1989). Quatsi Means Life: The Films of Godfrey Reggio. Film Quarterly, 42 (3), ss. 2-12.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1212596
Google Scholar
Dewey, C. (2014, 14 stycznia). An Interview with „Visitors” Director Godfrey Reggio. TucsonWeekly.com. https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2014/02/14/ an-interview-with-visitors-director-godfrey-reggio
Google Scholar
Essid, J. (2004). Film as „Explicador” for Hypertext. Computers and the Humanities, 38 (3), ss. 317-333.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-004-0755-7
Google Scholar
Hunter, S. (2011). An Interview with Godfrey Reggio, Director of the Film „Koyaanisqatsi”. RaiseTheStakesEditions.com. https://raisethestakeseditions.com/godfrey-reggio
Google Scholar
Kauffman, J. (2014, 30 maja). „Visitors” Director Godfrey Reggio: Exclusive Interview. Blu-ray.com. https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=14112
Google Scholar
Khodaei, K. (2009). „Shirin” as Described by Kiarostami. Offscreen, (1). https:// offscreen.com/view/shirin_kiarostami
Google Scholar
MacDonald, S. (1992). A Critical Cinema 2: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. Berkeley – Los Angeles – Oxford: University of California Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520912861
Google Scholar
MacDonald, S. (2010). Avant-Doc: Eight Intersections. Film Quarterly, 64 (2), ss. 50-57.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/FQ.2010.64.2.50
Google Scholar
MacDonald, S. (2015). Avant-Doc: Intersection of Documentary and Avant-Garde Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199388707.001.0001
Google Scholar
McCormick, C. (2005). Godfrey Reggio’s Fearful Symmetry. Aperture, (180), ss. 24-33.
Google Scholar
Marsh, C. (2014, 17 stycznia). Composer Philip Glass on Godfrey Reggio’s „Visitors” and Why Audiences Won’t Walk out. MTV.com. https://www.mtv.com/news/37y4yn/philip-glass-interview-godfrey-reggio-visitors
Google Scholar
Minh-ha, T. T. (1991). When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics. New York – London: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Morris, E. (2004). The Fog of War: 13 Questions and Answers on the Filmmaking of Errol Morris by Errol Morris. ErrolMorris.com. https://www.errolmorris.com/content/eyecontact/interrotron.html
Google Scholar
Nichols, B. (1991). Representing Reality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Google Scholar
Nichols, B. (2017). Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2005t6j
Google Scholar
Patterson, J. (2014, 27 marca). Godfrey Reggio: „My Che Guevara Was Pope John XXIII”. TheGuardian.com. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/27/godfrey-regio-visitors-filmmaker-koyaanisqatsi
Google Scholar
Renov, M. (1993). Toward a Poetics of Documentary. W: M. Renov (red.), Theorizing Documentary (ss. 12-36). New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Schobert, C. (2013, 9 września). TIFF Review: „Visitors” from Godfrey Reggio, the Director of „Koyaanisqatsi”. IndieWire.com. https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/tiff-review-visitors-from-godfrey-reggio-the-director-of-koyaanisqatsi-93900
Google Scholar
Wigon, Z. (2014, 24 stycznia). Interview: Godfrey Reggio Returns with the Breathtaking 4K Film „Visitors”. Tribeca News. https://tribecafilm.com/news/interview-godfrey-reggio-visitors-4k
Google Scholar
Authors
Piotr Zawojskipiotr.zawojski@us.edu.pl
University of Silesia Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2291-0446
Associate Professor at the Institute of Culture Studies, University of Silesia in Katowice. He also works at the Faculty of Intermedia, Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. His research interests focus on the theory of photography, film and cinema, new media and new media arts, cyberculture and technoculture. His publications include Elektroniczne obrazoświaty. Między sztuką a technologią [Electronic Image-Worlds: Between Art and Technology] (2000); Wielkie filmy przełomu wieków. Subiektywny przewodnik [Great Films of the Turn of the Century: Subjective Guide] (2007); Cyberkultura. Syntopia sztuki, nauki i technologii [Cyberculture: Syntopy of Art, Science and Technology] (2010, 2nd edition 2018); Sztuka obrazu i obrazowania w epoce nowych mediów [The Art of Image and Imaging in the Era of New Media] (2012); Technokultura i jej manifestacje artystyczne. Medialny świat hybryd i hybrydyzacji [Technoculture and Its Artistic Manifestations: The Media World of Hybrids and Hybridization] (2016) and Ruchome obrazy zatrzymane w pamięci. Reminiscencje teoretyczne i krytyczne [Moving Images Retained in Memory: Theoretical and Critical Reminiscences] (2017). He is the editor of the Film and Media section at the Polish cultural quarterly Opcje. Member of the Committee on Cultural Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Statistics
Abstract views: 140PDF downloads: 102
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Piotr Zawojski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Piotr Zawojski, The Stories of the Avant-garde Film (Re)written , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 115 (2021): Form Film, Content Film
- Piotr Zawojski, An Author Liberating Reality Against the Dictates of “Mise en scène”? “Five” by Abbas Kiarostami , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 122 (2023): Landscapes, Panoramas, Territories
- Piotr Zawojski, On Intermedial Relations between Film and Video Games , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 125 (2024): Cinema as a Memory Machine
