WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?
UNTIL WE DO, THERE’S ALWAYS THE MUSIC
On Saturday, April 19, Town Hall presented Naqoyqatsi (2002), the third and final film in Godfrey Reggio‘s Qatsi Trilogy, and it was a triumph with a felt, deserved, long standing ovation at its conclusion. Edited by Jon Kane, with music composed by Philip Glass (who was in the house), the film is a non-narrative experimental documentary without dialogue, yet it has a transcendent score like its predecessors Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi. For the first time in 20 years we had the chance to see it in New York with the music performed live by the Philip Glass Ensemble, featuring cellist Matt Haimovitz.
Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio
The Philip Glass Ensemble and musical guests with image
from the Godfrey Reggio / Philip Glass Film Naqoyqatsi
In a short video-introduction, Reggio explained the meaning of this final work, darker and more disorienting than the other two. Rightly so: the title, from the Hopi language, is translated as “life as war.” If Koyaanisqatsi was life out of balance, Powaqqatsi a reminder that it is the third-world labor that makes modern society possible, Naqoyqatsi portrays the transition from a natural world into a synthetic one dominated by technology. “Technology is ubiquitous,” Reggio warned us.
Frank Cassara, Matt Haimovitz, Andrew Sterman
The Philip Glass Ensemble, L to R:
Michael Reisman, Andrew Sterman, Sam Sadigursky, Peter Hess, Lisa Lielawa
Back in 2002, Naqoyqatsi was a haunting, artistic dream about a future overrun by digital simulations, corporate militarism, and data-obsessed people slowly losing touch with reality. Fast forward to 2025, and Reggio’s avant-garde montages of distorted faces and war footage edited into techno-chaos feel like our normal nightly news or X feed. In it, we see data replacing the human experience, civilization consumed by its own simulations, and war as entertainment. Naqoyqatsi warned us, and boy, did we deliver; even geopolitics are now gamified. The film uses digitally manipulated archival footage, stock imagery, 3D animations, and graphic overlays, heavily processed through the digital effects of the times (that now may feel a bit dated) but the message is clear: perpetual conflict will become everyday life, “life as war.”
Philip Glass Ensemble and Musical Guests performing live score to Naqoyqatsi
Michael Riesman masterfully directed the journey from the podium. The Ensemble was phenomenal, shaping each phrase with intention, emotion, and precision The members are Lisa Bielawa, (voice and keyboard), Andrew Sterman (flute, piccolo, clarinet), Peter Hess (saxophones), Sam Sadigursky (saxophone, flute), Dan Bora (sound), and Ryan Kelly (onstage sound) – with guests musicians Frank Cassara and Riley Palimer on percussions, Nelson Padgett, Eleonor Sandresky, and Phillip Bush on keyboard. The music is the emotional text to the visual subtext, and in Naqoyqatsi the tone was softer and less minimalistic than the previous two films. The musical themes and rhythmic patterns intertwined sensuously, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes unsettling, and they soothed my soul when the images on the screen made me feel helpless and cynical. The cello solos performed by Haimovitz, who possesses a rare combination of technical mastery, deep musicality, and expressive acumen, added an emotional layer, a counterpoint to the coldness of the digital imagery.
Philip Glass Ensemble and Musical Guests performing live score to Naqoyqatsi
The final part of Naqoyqatsi shows modern life as a series of battles, economic, physical, and cultural. Order, perfection, and simulation over authenticity and organic chaos, beauty with the soul sucked out. Life as permanent conflict, military, political, corporate, and war is no longer horror, it is content. I left with a faint sense of dread and inevitability, yet extremely happy I witnessed an outstanding concert, executed with such clarity and ease that made the impossible look effortless. Great music can’t save us but at least it drowns out the sound of everything else going wrong.
(center) Philip Glass, composer; Andrew Sterman, managing member, Philip Glass Ensemble
Members of the Philip Glass Ensemble with Philip Glass (black cap)
at the Town Hall reception following their performance
photos by Sachyn Mital
The Philip Glass Ensemble: Powaqqatsi
presented by The Town Hall in NYC
reviewed on April 19, 2025
