Godfrey Reggio (born 1940) is an American director of experimental documentary films.
Life
Reggio was born in New Orleans in 1940 to a Catholic family. He left home at age 14 to join the Catholic Christian Brotherhood. He became a monk, and spent 14 years in silence and prayer during his training. He also acknowledges Artavazd Peleshyan, a documentary-poet, who was a mentor and friend.
Early work
Reggio helped found the Institute for Regional Education in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a non-profit foundation. He became a founder of La Clinica de la Gente, a facility providing medical care and service to 12,000 community members in northern New Mexico's barrios,
Reggio worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico in 1972, to develop a media campaign dealing with the loss of privacy and the rise of surveillance, as well as the militarization of police in the U.S. during the post-Vietnam War era. The media campaign was presented on television, radio, billboards and in major newspapers. It was produced by Steven Soderbergh and Alexander Rodnyansky and had its world premiere at Santa Fe International Film Festival (SFiFF) in October 2022. The festival awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Reggio has collaborated with the composer Philip Glass many times on the musical and orchestral soundtracks that augment Reggio's wordless films. He also collaborates with Jon Kane, a fellow filmmaker.
The bulk of Reggio's cinematic records, manuscripts, papers, photographs, film rolls, over forty years, have been acquired by Harvard University's Houghton Library, and the Harvard Film Archive.
His work continues with the Godfrey Reggio Foundation, which his wife Marti started in 2024.
Influences
In an interview with Revus et Corriges, Reggio stated that he was particularly influenced by the work of experimental filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage and Maya Deren. Like these filmmakers, Reggio uses film as a medium for exploring the boundaries of perception and consciousness, using the camera as a tool for capturing the unseen and the intangible.
Personal life
Since the 1960s, Reggio has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico.