Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: What is the most overlooked and/or underrated movie of 2017?
E. Oliver Whitney, Screencrush.com, @cinemabite
Despite the critical praise, “A Fantastic Woman” only a one-week qualifying run last month, and I worry is it’ll easily be forgotten this awards season. Daniela Vega gives one of the most astounding performances I’ve seen this year, one that comes from somewhere fierce and internal, portraying the life and struggle of a trans woman that cinema has rarely shown an interest in exploring. But since you can’t see it until it has a proper release in Febraury, do check one of the year’s other...
This week’s question: What is the most overlooked and/or underrated movie of 2017?
E. Oliver Whitney, Screencrush.com, @cinemabite
Despite the critical praise, “A Fantastic Woman” only a one-week qualifying run last month, and I worry is it’ll easily be forgotten this awards season. Daniela Vega gives one of the most astounding performances I’ve seen this year, one that comes from somewhere fierce and internal, portraying the life and struggle of a trans woman that cinema has rarely shown an interest in exploring. But since you can’t see it until it has a proper release in Febraury, do check one of the year’s other...
- 12/4/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
by Glenn Dunks
If you have ever watched a Bill Morrison film, then you will have surely remember him for the way his films appear as if they are deteriorating before your eyes. Best known for works such as Decasia that are assembled out of weathered, beaten and sometimes even partly destroyed reels of film celluloid, Morrison’s films often play with the concept that film – the physical, tactile product of film itself just as much as the broad term for motion pictures as we know them – is not something we should ever be flippant about.
His movies are made out of parts of other movies, its true -- clips and excerpts taken from decaying reels that most could consider at home in a rubbish tip. Many may find his aesthetic challenging, but there is something so delightfully classical about the way he repurposes any image that sits atop a filmstrip.
If you have ever watched a Bill Morrison film, then you will have surely remember him for the way his films appear as if they are deteriorating before your eyes. Best known for works such as Decasia that are assembled out of weathered, beaten and sometimes even partly destroyed reels of film celluloid, Morrison’s films often play with the concept that film – the physical, tactile product of film itself just as much as the broad term for motion pictures as we know them – is not something we should ever be flippant about.
His movies are made out of parts of other movies, its true -- clips and excerpts taken from decaying reels that most could consider at home in a rubbish tip. Many may find his aesthetic challenging, but there is something so delightfully classical about the way he repurposes any image that sits atop a filmstrip.
- 10/31/2017
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Review by Roger Carpenter
Dawson City, located in the Yukon Territory of Canada, is inextricably linked to the 1896 gold rush. But the area had been an important seasonal fishing and hunting village for indigenous tribes for centuries before gold was discovered. Once the gold ran out, the city nearly ceased to exist before making headlines again in 1978 for a find nearly as extraordinary as the gold nearly a century before. This new discovery was of a cache of over 500 silent films from the earliest era of the movies, which had been buried for decades. Dawson City: Frozen Time is an exploration of the complicated history of the town as told through clips and still shots from the films salvaged from the tundra.
This area had long been a seasonal hunting ground for the Tr’ondek Hwech’in tribe, important because of its location at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers.
Dawson City, located in the Yukon Territory of Canada, is inextricably linked to the 1896 gold rush. But the area had been an important seasonal fishing and hunting village for indigenous tribes for centuries before gold was discovered. Once the gold ran out, the city nearly ceased to exist before making headlines again in 1978 for a find nearly as extraordinary as the gold nearly a century before. This new discovery was of a cache of over 500 silent films from the earliest era of the movies, which had been buried for decades. Dawson City: Frozen Time is an exploration of the complicated history of the town as told through clips and still shots from the films salvaged from the tundra.
This area had long been a seasonal hunting ground for the Tr’ondek Hwech’in tribe, important because of its location at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers.
- 10/31/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This Blu is a fascinating hybrid of experimental film and historical documentary by Bill Morrison of Decasia fame. Lost film history and the vanished era of the Dawson Gold Rush blend into one story — all touched off by the discovery of tons of rare silent film, buried in the cold ground of the Canadian Yukon. And Donald Trump’s in there too! In the show, not the snow.
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 widescreen & 1:37 Silent Ap / 120 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95
Starring: Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates, Sam Kula, Bill O’Farrell, Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo, Bill Morrison.
Film Editor: Bill Morrison
Researchers: Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates
Original Music: Alex Somers; sound design John Somers
Produced by Bill Morrison and Madeleine Molyneaux
Written and Directed by Bill Morrison
Bill Morrison is the celebrated filmmaker of Decasia, a wonderful film...
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
2017 / Color & B&W / 1:78 widescreen & 1:37 Silent Ap / 120 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95
Starring: Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates, Sam Kula, Bill O’Farrell, Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo, Bill Morrison.
Film Editor: Bill Morrison
Researchers: Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates
Original Music: Alex Somers; sound design John Somers
Produced by Bill Morrison and Madeleine Molyneaux
Written and Directed by Bill Morrison
Bill Morrison is the celebrated filmmaker of Decasia, a wonderful film...
- 10/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Barry Levitt was a participant on this year's inaugural Film Critics Day workshop at the Cinema Rediscovered film festival in Bristol and Clevedon in the U.K. Cinema Rediscovered is a celebration of the finest new digital restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities from across the globe. 15 early career and aspiring film critics took part in a full day workshop looking at the state of things for film criticism in the U.K. and beyond. They each produced a written or visual piece of criticism around the films in the program. Further examples of their work, as well as information about the program, can be found on the Cinema Rediscovered Blog.Dawson City: Frozen TimeAt the bottom of a derelict swimming pool in Dawson City, deep in the Yukon territory of north-west Canada, lay one of the greatest discoveries in film history, waiting to be found. For nearly fifty...
- 8/23/2017
- MUBI
After bulldozers uncovered reels of long-buried silent films on a Canadian building site, painstaking restoration has delivered a fascinating glimpse of boom time in Dawson City – and the artistic delights to be found there
In 1978, in north-west Canada’s Yukon territory, construction on a new recreation centre was under way in a small rural settlement called Dawson City. As bulldozers tore up the ground where the previous sports hall had stood, a remarkable discovery came to light: hundreds of reels of ancient nitrate film. Some 533 silent films were recovered, including newsreels and features of all types, dating from the 1910s and 20s. Most were previously unknown to film scholars or thought to be totally lost. But for 49 years the inhospitable cold of the Yukon landscape had safely protected the films – which had been found at the bottom of an old swimming pool.
Film-maker Bill Morrison has pieced together some of...
In 1978, in north-west Canada’s Yukon territory, construction on a new recreation centre was under way in a small rural settlement called Dawson City. As bulldozers tore up the ground where the previous sports hall had stood, a remarkable discovery came to light: hundreds of reels of ancient nitrate film. Some 533 silent films were recovered, including newsreels and features of all types, dating from the 1910s and 20s. Most were previously unknown to film scholars or thought to be totally lost. But for 49 years the inhospitable cold of the Yukon landscape had safely protected the films – which had been found at the bottom of an old swimming pool.
Film-maker Bill Morrison has pieced together some of...
- 7/28/2017
- by Christina Newland
- The Guardian - Film News
The poetics of decomposition are the haunting, thrilling and, in the case of his latest feature, Dawson City: Frozen Time, historically revelatory stuff of the cinema of Bill Morrison. In varying degrees and across films like The Miner’s Hymn, The Great Flood and Decasia — the latter dubbed “the best film ever made” by Errol Morris — Morrison has made the excavation of lost cinematic images both an informative and sensory-impactful experience. In the new Dawson City: Frozen Time, Morrison both dramatizes and draws upon the discovery of over 500 silent era films found iced and buried in a swimming […]...
- 6/9/2017
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
As far as feature documentaries about the history of film, be it about specific genres, films or film talent, are more often than not “tough sledding.” Droll, self serious and completely superficial, a vast majority of documentaries about the history of film feel lifeless and simply a series of facts told to the audience by whoever the filmmaker could get in the booth that day.
This, however, could not be further from the truth when discussing Dawson City: Frozen Time. Despite having a relatively dry title, Bill Morrison’s latest and possibly greatest work sends us back to the earliest days of the medium, or at least after initially setting the stage for what would come. In 1978, a man in the small Canadian village of Dawson City uncovered a treasure trove of roughly 500 nitrate film reels, with their origins in back half of the 1910’s. This discovery thrusts the viewers...
This, however, could not be further from the truth when discussing Dawson City: Frozen Time. Despite having a relatively dry title, Bill Morrison’s latest and possibly greatest work sends us back to the earliest days of the medium, or at least after initially setting the stage for what would come. In 1978, a man in the small Canadian village of Dawson City uncovered a treasure trove of roughly 500 nitrate film reels, with their origins in back half of the 1910’s. This discovery thrusts the viewers...
- 6/9/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Bill Morrison is a passionate archivist and a gifted collage artist, and sometimes — at his best — he is able to be both at once, using one area of expertise to deepen the other. In 2002’s brilliant “Decasia,” for example, he reassembled snippets of exposed and decaying nitrate film stock into a quasi-structuralist (and entirely non-narrative) meditation on death. Morrison recognizes that objects are endowed with their own unique histories, that raw material can be a medium unto itself, and his work invites viewers to think about cinema as a product of — and a witness to — its environment.
In that respect at least, “Dawson City: Frozen Time” is vintage Bill Morrison. Almost entirely comprised of archival footage and monochromatic stills, the film tells the story of its own existence and does so in exhaustive detail. Fortunately, it’s an incredible story to tell.
Only James Comey could be expected to remember...
In that respect at least, “Dawson City: Frozen Time” is vintage Bill Morrison. Almost entirely comprised of archival footage and monochromatic stills, the film tells the story of its own existence and does so in exhaustive detail. Fortunately, it’s an incredible story to tell.
Only James Comey could be expected to remember...
- 6/8/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Dawson City: Frozen Time Director: Bill Morrison Screenwriter: Bill Morrison Cast: Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates, Sam Kula, Bill O’Farrell, Bill Morrison Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/30/17 Opens: June 9, 2017 at New York’s IFC Center If you’re a film buff, you might be one of the relatively few people who saw “Decasia,” Bill Morrison’s […]
The post Dawson City: Frozen Time Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Dawson City: Frozen Time Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 6/1/2017
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
In 1978, a construction crew breaking ground for a rec center found something completely unexpected buried under ice and debris in an old mining town in the Yukon: a cache of lost nitrate films from 1910s and 20s Hollywood.
Gold was discovered in Dawson City in 1896, leading to a gold rush that caused the town’s population to boom. Dawson City became the end of a film distribution line that sent prints of films and newsreels to the Yukon. More often than not, the films were never returned, and many of them were thought lost forever.
As the first trailer shows ahead of a release next month, Bill Morrison’s documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time digs into the story of the lost films, telling the story almost entirely through clips from the re-discovered films, as well as archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, all set to score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers.
Gold was discovered in Dawson City in 1896, leading to a gold rush that caused the town’s population to boom. Dawson City became the end of a film distribution line that sent prints of films and newsreels to the Yukon. More often than not, the films were never returned, and many of them were thought lost forever.
As the first trailer shows ahead of a release next month, Bill Morrison’s documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time digs into the story of the lost films, telling the story almost entirely through clips from the re-discovered films, as well as archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, all set to score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers.
- 5/27/2017
- by Chris Evangelista
- The Film Stage
Dawn City: Frozen Time“A place is thus an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies an indication of stability. A space exists when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities, and time variables… Every story is a travel story, a spatial practice."—Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday LifeTime is the central tenet of all cinema. The impression of its passing is the enthralling illusion at the medium’s flickering heart; petrified images are reanimated by the whirr of the projector. Even at its most micro level cinema traverses the intersection of time and place, as the static location of a single picture is temporally transported before our eyes by the flurry of subsequent frames. On a macro level, that relationship and those concepts are no less pervasive or vital. In 2006, found footage filmmaker Bill Morrison told Senses of Cinema that: "for better or worse, the projector is...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
The “Old School Kung Fu Fest” comes to the Lower East Side this weekend, offering the likes of Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Tsui Hark, among others.
A print of My Neighbor Totoro screens on Saturday morning.
Frederick Wiseman‘s Hospital begins a week-long run.
A restoration of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari screens this Monday.
Metrograph
The “Old School Kung Fu Fest” comes to the Lower East Side this weekend, offering the likes of Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Tsui Hark, among others.
A print of My Neighbor Totoro screens on Saturday morning.
Frederick Wiseman‘s Hospital begins a week-long run.
A restoration of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari screens this Monday.
- 4/8/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
On Mubi Off is a column exploring two films: one currently available on Mubi in the United States, and the other screening offsite (in theaters, on VOD, Blu-ray/DVD, etc).On MUBIThe Great Flood (Bill Morrison, 2011) Let's talk disasters—not those films that fail so spectacularly it's a sight to behold, but those actual Acts of God (or Man) that movies, quite often these days, take as their subject. So much of our art and the discourse surrounding it aims to convince us that the sky is forever falling. At the very least it presumes the worst will always happen (how human) and either a superman will save us or we'll be left to fend—violently, in all likelihood—for ourselves. The perpetual sense of imminent chaos is, to put it mildly, agitating. We need the complementary clarity provided by peace of mind, body and spirit in order to make sense of the senseless.
- 3/22/2016
- by Keith Uhlich
- MUBI
Chile is a long country. It takes 12 hours of bus travel from its capital, Santiago, to the city of Valdivia, where one of the most important festivals of the continent happens every October. It’s a two-hour trip by plane, and even that’s surprising considering that the average plane trip from Santiago to Mendoza, the nearest city in Argentina, is only 45 minutes long. So, Chile is also a narrow country, and when you live your entire life in it, one gets used to understand this complex piece of land in terms of dualities or pairs: contradicting forces that give this country its unique identity. For example, you have the dry and hot North (with the second most arid desert in the world), and the rainy cold South (where this festival takes place).To better understand the complex panorama and program that this year’s Valdivia festival had to offer,...
- 11/30/2015
- by Jaime Grijalba Gómez
- MUBI
If you don't know Bill Morrison, you ought to. The bracingly original director of "Decasia," a 2002 favorite of Errol Morris and J. Hoberman and an entry in the National Film Registry, has defined avant-garde cinema for over two decades. At last, his restored body of work comes to DVD and VOD this Fall from Icarus Films. "Bill Morrison: Collected Works (1996-2013)" will hit shelves and digital platforms on September 23, just a few weeks before the Museum of Modern Art mounts a major New York retrospective of his singular shorts and features (October 14-November 21). The 16 films in the set include a Blu-ray of "Decasia," Morrison's electrifying collage of decayed found footage pulled from the early 20th century, with an unsettling score by composer Michael Gordon. J. Hoberman wrote, "The film is a fierce dance of destruction. Its flame-like, roiling black-and-white inspires trembling and gratitude." "Decasia" is a great place to.
- 8/26/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
The director's new film is an elegy for pit workers, while up in the north-east the theme of this year's Av is 'extraction'. Together they explore the legacy of a hammer blow to workers' power
Film-maker Bill Morrison is feeling a little rueful. "Striking was once an effective means of leveraging power. Today's striking worker may feel fortunate to wake up and still have a job." He's reflecting on his film The Miners' Hymns, a collaboration with Icelandic musician Jóhann Jóhannsson, which trawls through hundreds of hours of archival footage of mines in the north-east of England to fashion an elegy for the workers, brass bands, local communities and unions that sustained the region throughout much of the 20th century. This month there will be many articles, radio programmes and TV documentaries marking the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the miners' strike: few will be as beautiful or as...
Film-maker Bill Morrison is feeling a little rueful. "Striking was once an effective means of leveraging power. Today's striking worker may feel fortunate to wake up and still have a job." He's reflecting on his film The Miners' Hymns, a collaboration with Icelandic musician Jóhann Jóhannsson, which trawls through hundreds of hours of archival footage of mines in the north-east of England to fashion an elegy for the workers, brass bands, local communities and unions that sustained the region throughout much of the 20th century. This month there will be many articles, radio programmes and TV documentaries marking the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the miners' strike: few will be as beautiful or as...
- 3/8/2014
- by Sukhdev Sandhu
- The Guardian - Film News
‘Gilda,’ ‘Pulp Fiction’: 2013 National Film Registry movies (photo: Rita Hayworth in ‘Gilda’) See previous post: “‘Mary Poppins’ in National Film Registry: Good Timing for Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks.’” Billy Woodberry’s UCLA thesis film Bless Their Little Hearts (1984). Stanton Kaye’s Brandy in the Wilderness (1969). The Film Group’s Cicero March (1966), about a Civil Rights march in an all-white Chicago suburb. Norbert A. Myles’ Daughter of Dawn (1920), with Hunting Horse, Oscar Yellow Wolf, Esther Labarre. Bill Morrison’s Decasia (2002), featuring decomposing archival footage. Alfred E. Green’s Ella Cinders (1926), with Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Vera Lewis. Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956), with Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Robby the Robot. Charles Vidor’s Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready. John and Faith Hubley’s Oscar-winning animated short The Hole (1962). Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), with Best Actor Oscar winner Maximilian Schell,...
- 12/20/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you.
Or, you know, when the...
Or, you know, when the...
- 12/18/2013
- by Hillary Busis
- EW - Inside Movies
This is the fourth and final dispatch on some of the goods offered by the 57th London Film Festival’s ‘Experimenta’ section.
Is it problematic to name a film festival’s programme strand to denote some kind of aesthetic experimentation? Surely, the argument goes, all works of art operate and evolve within and along what Mark Cousins has defined as a “schema + variation” trajectory. Even the most formulaic film contains a tension between familiarity and originality. Those mainstream films we customarily understand to be genre pieces work within established parameters (aesthetic, narrative) and are often interpreted accordingly, in relation to how they fit within certain tropes.
To consciously programme a number of works under the umbrella term of ‘Experimenta’ may actually marginalize the films rather than draw new audiences to them. Great for those already inclined toward such works—those who’ll seek out films precisely because they’re unlikely...
Is it problematic to name a film festival’s programme strand to denote some kind of aesthetic experimentation? Surely, the argument goes, all works of art operate and evolve within and along what Mark Cousins has defined as a “schema + variation” trajectory. Even the most formulaic film contains a tension between familiarity and originality. Those mainstream films we customarily understand to be genre pieces work within established parameters (aesthetic, narrative) and are often interpreted accordingly, in relation to how they fit within certain tropes.
To consciously programme a number of works under the umbrella term of ‘Experimenta’ may actually marginalize the films rather than draw new audiences to them. Great for those already inclined toward such works—those who’ll seek out films precisely because they’re unlikely...
- 10/21/2013
- by Michael Pattison
- MUBI
The Bradford International Film Festival is typically an underground-friendly fest. This year appears to be no exception with two very special experimental film retrospectives, as well as a few modern underground-type flicks.
The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.
Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.
From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...
The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.
Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.
From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...
- 3/11/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Bill Morrison’s newest film The Shooting Gallery has just finished playing a mere handful of screenings at the Bam Fisher Fishman Space as part of the 30th Next Wave Festival. It represents a new step in Morrison’s oeuvre because it introduces, as far as I’m aware, the concept of interactivity into his work, with audience members each receiving a laser pointer which they used as a remote control to select video and audio clips throughout the screening. The result—with music by Richard Einhorn, design by Jim Findlay, and interactive programming by Ryan Holsopple—is vintage Morrison but also something completely new.
Morrison is best known as a manipulator of archival footage, particularly footage that’s decaying into obsolescence. By showcasing these strips of film that are beyond any hope of restoration, Morrison actually resurrects them, gives them new life, and highlights the physical nature of film—its tactileness,...
Morrison is best known as a manipulator of archival footage, particularly footage that’s decaying into obsolescence. By showcasing these strips of film that are beyond any hope of restoration, Morrison actually resurrects them, gives them new life, and highlights the physical nature of film—its tactileness,...
- 11/12/2012
- by Randy Astle
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
★★★☆☆ In Decasia (2002), experimental American filmmaker Bill Morrison explored the fragility of film by looking at decomposing celluloid. In The Miners' Hymns (2010), the director does something very similar but on a grander scale. By slowing down archive footage of the mining communities in the North West of England, and pairing them neatly with a melancholic score from Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, Morrison throws some light on the fragility of history, and the importance of its industrial communities.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 6/19/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
The Miners' Hymns (2011) is "an elegant, elegiac found-footage work from Bill Morrison, best known for his silent-film reverie Decasia," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "A miner himself of a type, Mr Morrison has dug into the archives of the likes of the British Film Institute to cull primarily black-and-white images so rich, so alive with dirty faces, shadows and the occasional pit pony that they resurrect a world that for many has long been lost to history." It screens from today through Tuesday at Film Forum with three of Morrison's shorts, previewed by Cinespect's Ryan Wells. Release (2010) "uses found footage of the 1930 release of Al Capone from Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary," while Outerborough (2005) "gorgeously catches a ride on a trolley making its voyage across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan. Morrison gives us a split screen with two perspectives: a camera facing Brooklyn, another looking back at Manhattan.
- 2/9/2012
- MUBI
Experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison will probably always be best known for 2002’s “Decasia,” his 67-minute meditation on the terrifying beauty of decomposing film prints. But Morrison has made many other films that take advantage of movie archives’ mysterious power to conjure up the past in ways both vividly real and distorted. Morrison’s 2011 piece “The Miners’ Hymns” is being shown with a trio of those earlier works: 2010’s “Release,” which mirrors a panoramic shot of Al Capone being let out of prison such that the assembled crowd collapses into itself; 2005’s similar “Outerborough,” which runs two ...
- 2/9/2012
- avclub.com
A few years ago, when I was leaving the Edinburgh Film Festival, a journalist asked if I had a single film that encapsulated my term there. I answered, without hesitation: "Bill Morrison’s 'Decasia.'" There were a number of reasons for this: It was one of the first films I’d programmed in my first year as director and it spoke, eloquently and conspicuously, to a number of my own preoccupations: cinema as both a cultural artifact and a physical medium; the decline of analogue technologies and the extinction of particular crafts associated with them; the reconciliation of avant-garde aesthetics with broader narrative satisfactions. Considered on a sensory level, it was tremendously impressive, offering spectators an immersive, almost transfigurative experience. And it happened to be a masterpiece—one of the greatest American films, I think, of the last quarter-century. Ten years on, that film’s reputation has only.
- 1/31/2012
- Indiewire
This year's AFI Fest opens this evening in Los Angeles with Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar, closes on November 10 with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin and, as the Playlist is reporting today, the festival will host the world premiere of Steven Soderbergh's Haywire on Sunday: "Haywire marks the big screen debut of Mma fighter Gina Carano, who takes the lead in the gritty spy thriller written by Lem Dobbs (The Limey) about Mallory Kane, a black ops soldier on a mission of revenge after she's double crossed by one of her teammates. As usual, Soderbergh has assembled a crackerjack ensemble that includes Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Michael Angarano, Matthieu Kassovitz and Antonio Banderas… 'People really get hit in this film and they get hurt,' the director told us this summer." Update: The Playlist's headline's been tweaked; Haywire...
- 11/4/2011
- MUBI
Director Bill Morrison has been a mainstay of the experimental film world for many years, but this is his first appearance at AFI Fest. His previous works, including "Decasia," have played in festivals around the world, winning numerous awards and acclaim. With "Spark of Being," Morrison retells one of the cinema's classic stories, "Frankenstein," in his signature style, using found footage meticulously step printed and repurposed. Morrison's mastery over celluloid ...
- 11/3/2011
- indieWIRE - People
Director Bill Morrison has been a mainstay of the experimental film world for many years, but this is his first appearance at AFI Fest. His previous works, including "Decasia," have played in festivals around the world, winning numerous awards and acclaim. With "Spark of Being," Morrison retells one of the cinema's classic stories, "Frankenstein," in his signature style, using found footage meticulously step printed and repurposed. Morrison's mastery over celluloid ...
- 11/3/2011
- Indiewire
Director Bill Morrison has been a mainstay of the experimental film world for many years, but this is his first appearance at AFI Fest. His previous works, including "Decasia," have played in festivals around the world, winning numerous awards and acclaim. With "Spark of Being," Morrison retells one of the cinema's classic stories, "Frankenstein," in his signature style, using found footage meticulously step printed and repurposed. Morrison's mastery over celluloid ...
- 11/3/2011
- indieWIRE - People
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of all time favorite films. This month we bent the rules a little, our profiled filmmaker Habib Azar explains why below, and keep in mind in less than a month, he'll be presenting his debut film, Armless at Sundance. He gave us his top seven (*) as of December 2009. - Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of all time favorite films. This month we bent the rules a little, our profiled filmmaker Habib Azar explains why below, and keep in mind in less than a month,...
- 12/23/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
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