Emmy and Grammy-winning director, documentarian, and editor Thom Zimny considers music an essential facet of his storytelling process. Zimny has created cinematic portraits of iconic musicians, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Bruce Springsteen. His latest project, the 2023 documentary Sly (Netflix) follows the dramatic highs and lows of action star Sylvester Stallone’s life and career.
More: Documentarian Thom Zimny on his latest subject Sly (The Treatment, 2023)
For his Treat, Zimny candidly discusses his struggle with dyslexia and reveals how, at the age of 18, he stumbled upon a profound source of inspiration in the 1983 experimental indie film, Koyaanisqatsi. Stemming from the Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance”, Koyaanisqatsi was directed by Godfrey Reggio and scored by Philip Glass. The film presents an apocalyptic documentary-style vision, devoid of dialogue and relying instead on the symbiosis of music and imagery to convey its narrative. Through witnessing the film's editing and ingenious use of images and music together, Zimny unearthed a new means of expression — a language he could use to express himself and his ideas.
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I was a dyslexic kid who could not connect to reading and writing. But at the same time I had all these emotions, all these thoughts, and all these feelings that I wanted to get to or just try to express. I got invited to a screening of a film that I barely had any understanding of what it would be, and it turned out to be a film called Koyaanisqatsi.
Koyaanisqatsi Official Trailer #1 - Ted Koppel Movie (1982) HD
This film had not a single line of dialogue. It was images and music, a score by Phillip Glass. It told me that there was another language, a language I didn't have to worry about, that I didn't have to struggle with. That was the language of music and film. Two images put together with music could tell a story. That changed my life.
So at 18 [completely obsessed with this film Koyaanisqatsi], I bought a video camera, rigged up two VCRs, [and] wanted to figure out this magical act called editing by taking one tape and hitting play and another tape hitting record. [With] Koyaanisqatsi in my heart, I started making films. And the first thing I wanted to tackle was a song I was obsessed with which was "Born in the U.S.A.."
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. (Official Video)
I read an essay that it was not a song that was pro-America. It was about a Vietnam vet, and I got obsessed reading those lyrics. … I decided I was gonna make my version of "Born in the U.S.A.". [I] sat in my room all night long and cross-cut [the song] with a PBS documentary [about Vietnam] and a Memorial Day parade.
It was my early attempt at telling stories. For me, the first time I experienced an edit that I made — felt a new meaning when putting the two images together — I felt my place in the world. I felt like this is something that I need to chase and that I could finally talk to people in some way
Performing the magic of editing, falling in love with this new language and this magic trick – that's something I've been chasing all my life. I'm most grateful that it turned out to be a job for me later in the space of creativity — that I got to work with Bruce Springsteen(!) But also, really the most important part of it was that Koyaanisqatsi opened up a door of a language, a way of telling stories with music.
Koyaanisqatsi - "The Grand Illusion"