Once again, Godfrey Reggio is up to his old visual tricks, abreast his old cinematic partner, composer Philip Glass.
You'll recall, Reggio had taken a respite from film for some 10 years, only to resurface with Visitors--a tour-de-force lacking any dialogue that remains a "confrontational meditation on the influence of technology in human life."
With an original score by Glass, Visitors presents cinema as a window into our conscience.
It opens with a female Lowland gorilla, Triska, who stares blankly, yet intently at the camera, fully present and hyper-aware. This is juxtaposed with a close-up of individuals and their unconscious gaze, directed at an absent viewer.
Snarky, perhaps, but clever and unnerving are probably better choices.
Reggio is no stranger to the art of social causes. At 14 years old, he became a monk with the Christian Brothers, abandoning his studies in 1968 to live in Santa Fe where he co-founded Young Citizens for Action, La Clinica de la Gente, La Gente and the Institute for Regional Education.
In 1972, Reggio organized a nationwide campaign against the invasion of privacy and the use of technology to control collective behavior. (Hear that? That's the sound of him and Eddie Snowden shacking up together.)
The Qatsi trilogy with Phil Glass followed, of course, as well as the documentaries Anima Mundi (1992) and Evidence ('95).
"This film didn't originate with a concept, or with an idea," says Reggio regarding Visitors.
"It came out of a sensibility. It is already inside...my job is to find it, and to midwife it. That's been the modality of all the films I've worked on. They're not based in literature, or screenplay--they're based in a sensibility that I call the aesthetic triplets: sensation, emotion and perception."
A filmic Nicaea if ever there were one, Visitors is now showing in New York at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema.
Give it a whirl, and be sure to check out the stills.
