Just in time for Christmas, on December 11 Criterion is releasing the Qatsi Trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi) on DVD and Blu-Ray.  New transfers and extras abound. For those who remember what a challenge it used to be to find even Koyaanisqatsi on VHS, such availability makes me downright gleeful.  I recall in college, paying $81 for a used VHS online. Probably within the same year, in a late night spending spree, I "participated in a fundraising effort" at Qatsi.org to buy a director autographed DVD of the film (splitting it with a friend) for $180, knowing that I was one of the few in the world to have a digital copy of the film.  Only in late 2002 did Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi make it to DVD being released by MGM.

The Criterion Elements:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfers of all three films, approved by director Godfrey Reggio, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on the Blu-ray editions
• Essence of Life, an interview program with Reggio and composer Philip Glass on Koyaanisqatsi
• New interview with cinematographer Ron Fricke about Koyaanisqatsi
• Early forty-minute demo version of Koyaanisqatsi with a scratch soundtrack by Allen Ginsberg, along with a new introduction by Reggio
• New interview with Reggio about Koyaanisqatsi’s original visual concept, with behind-the-scenes footage
• Impact of Progress, an interview program with Reggio and Glass on their collaboration
• Inspiration and Ideas, an interview with Reggio about his greatest influences and teachers
• Anima Mundi (1992), Reggio’s twenty-eight-minute montage of images of over seventy animal species, scored by Glass
• Video afterword by Reggio on the trilogy
• The Making of “Naqoyqatsi,” a brief documentary featuring interviews with the production crew
• Panel discussion on Naqoyqatsi from 2003, with Reggio, Glass, editor Jon Kane, and music critic John Rockwell
• Music of “Naqoyqatsi,” an interview with Glass and cellist Yo-Yo Ma
• Television spots and an interview with Reggio relating to his 1970s multimedia privacy campaign in New Mexico
• Trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays on the
  trilogy by film scholar Scott MacDonald, Rockwell, and author and
  environmentalist Bill McKibben