''Anima Mundi'' (also known as ''The Soul of the World'') is a 1991 Italian-American short

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Godfrey Reggio Godfrey Reggio (born March 29, 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films. Life Reggio was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to an old and distinguished Louisiana family descended from Francesco M. de Reggio, an Italian noblem ...

. The film focuses on the world of

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

and

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

, particularly

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

s, sealife, and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

Production

The movie was commissioned by Italian jewellers Bulgari for use by the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

in their Biological Diversity Program.

Music

The film was scored by Philip Glass, who also worked with Reggio on ''

Koyaanisqatsi ''Koyaanisqatsi'' (), also known as ''Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance'', is a 1982 American experimental non-narrative film directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. The f ...

'' (1983), ''

Powaqqatsi ''Powaqqatsi'', also known as ''Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation'', is a 1988 American non-narrative film directed by Godfrey Reggio and the sequel to Reggio's experimental 1982 film, ''Koyaanisqatsi''. It is the second film in the Qatsi trilo ...

'' (1988), and, later, on ''

Naqoyqatsi ''Naqoyqatsi'', also known as ''Naqoyqatsi: Life as War'', is a 2002 American non-narrative film directed by Godfrey Reggio and edited by Jon Kane, with music composed by Philip Glass. It is the third and final installment in the Qatsi trilogy. ...

'' (2002). ''Anima Mundi'' features many of the techniques from the '' Qatsi'' trilogy, but it is not considered to be directly related to the series.

Home media

The short was released on the Criterion Collection alongside the Qatsi trilogy on December 11, 2012.

References

External links

*
Homepage

Excerpt
{{WWFN 1991 films Documentary films about nature 1991 documentary films Films scored by Philip Glass World Wide Fund for Nature Films directed by Godfrey Reggio Non-narrative films Italian short documentary films American short documentary films 1991 short films 1990s short documentary films 1990s American films