Bill Morrison‘s films often combine rare archival material set to contemporary music. His work was honored with a mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, from October 2014 – March 2015. Morrison is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Alpert Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Grant, Creative Capital, and a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His theatrical projection design has been recognized with two Bessie awards and an Obie Award.
Film as Social Memory: Bill Morrison on Dawson City: Frozen Time
A trove of films unearthed in 1978 from the permafrost under the Yukon town of Dawson City forms the basis of Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time. But the discovery of silent-era gems sparked a much more expansive story for the filmmaker on capitalism, death, and memory. Here, Morrison reflects on the project’s genesis and its narrative of the American Experience.