videovideovideo

REDCAT: MONDAY MARCH 5 @ 8:00 PM FILMFORUM: SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 7:00 PM

BILL MORRISON’S
THEATER OF DECAYING MEMORIES
in collaboration with Los Angeles Filmforum

Noted for his poetic reworking of decaying archival footage, the Alpert Award winner shows a selection of shorts, ranging from the early Footprints (1992) to The Highwater Trilogy (2006)—a collage of ancient newsreel footage of storms, floods and icebergs. The program also includes The Film of Her (1996), in which archival footage is reinterpreted through fictional elements to evoke “an unrequited celluloid romance”; Light Is Calling (2004), widely recognized as a masterpiece; the exhilaratingly rhythmical Outerborough (2005); the mysterious short fiction film Ghost Trip (2000); and the reconfigured narrative The Mesmerist (2003) (TRT: 105 min).

Mon Mar 5 | 8 pm | $8–6
Jack H. Skirball Screening Series

In person: Bill Morrison

Program funded in part by a generous grant from The Herb Alpert Foundation.

There will be a screening of different shorts by Bill Morrison at LA Film Forum on Sunday, March 11.
see information below

“Over the past fifteen years, Bill Morrison has created a remarkable series of found-footage films that highlight the ravages of time and decay on the filmed image. These are as much celebrations of the sometimes-frightening beauty of decomposing film as laments for vanishing relics of cinema’s origin.” –Senses of Cinema

Detailed Program for Monday March 5 at REDCAT

Footprints
(1992, 6 min., b/w and color, 16mm)
The evolution of cinema as the evolution of modern man. Sound design by Jim Farmer.
The Film of Her
(1996, 12 min., b/w, 35mm)
Unseen films, and unsung lives: An unrequited celluloid romance is consummated in the vaults of the Library of Congress. And primitive cinema is saved from oblivion. Music by Henryk Gorecki and Bill Frisell.

Ghost Trip
(2000, 23 min., b/w, 35mm)
A man is shown his car, which he drives until it can be driven no more. Sound design by Michael Montes.
West Coast Premiere

The Mesmerist
(2003, 16 min., color, 35mm)
A melting revision of James Young’s The Bells (1926) starring Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff. Music by Bill Frisell.
West Coast Premiere

Light Is Calling
(2004, 8 min., color, 35mm)
”A contrastingly ecstatic film, in which bodies and movements dissolve in swirling waves of golden light, the film’s decay radiating as a glorious self-immolation.” – Senses of Cinema. Music by Bill Frisell.

Outerborough
(2005, 9.5 min., 35mm)
A trolley trip across the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899 becomes a unit for measuring time.
West Coast Premiere

The Highwater Trilogy
(2006, 31 min., 35mm)
i) Before I Enter
ii) How to Pray
iii) What We Build
Ancient newsreel footage of storms, floods and icebergs produce a combination of anxiety and awe when viewed in the wake of recent meteorological disasters.
Los Angeles Premiere

Born in Chicago, IL, November 17, 1965, Bill Morrison obtained a BFA from Cooper Union School of Art (NY) – where he studied with the animator Robert Breer in 1989. Eight of his titles are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York). His films have been screened at cinematheques, museums and concert halls worldwide, including BAM, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, MoMA, Anthology Film Archive (New York), the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), the Tate Modern, Royal Festival Hall, the ICA (London England) and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires, Argentina), among others. They have accompanied live performances by The American Composers Orchestra, The Bang On A Can All-Stars, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Bill Frisell, The London Sinfonietta, and Wilco.
Bill Morison has been invited to international film festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, San Francisco, Margaret Mead Film Festival, Black Maria Film Festival, Rotterdam, the Viennale, Forum des Images in Paris and Cork Film Festival in Ireland. His projected set work with the acclaimed performance ensemble Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie awards for excellence in theatrical design, and an Obie Award for collaborative design. Decasia, his feature length collaboration with composer Michael Gordon, has been performed live with a 55-piece orchestra surrounding audiences in Basel, at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, and in Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall. Morrison has received an Alpert Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, as well as production grants from Creative Capital, NYSCA, NYFA, and the NEA.

The on-line film journal Senses of Cinema is devoting two articles to Bill Morrison in issue No 42 (Oct-Dec 2006). Click on www.sensesofcinema.com to read the articles.

Filmography
Who By Water (2007)
The Highwater Trilogy (2006)
How To Pray (2006)
Outerborough (2005)
Gotham (2004)
Light Is Calling (2004)
The Mesmerist (2003)
East River (2003)
Decasia (2002)
Trinity (2000)
Ghost Trip (2000)
City Walk (1999)
Another Sky (1997)
The Film of Her (1996)
Nine Days North (1996)
Vigneti (1996)
Moda (1996)
Nemo (1995)
The World Is Round (1994)
The Death Train (1993)
Footprints (1992)
Photo Op (1992)
Lost Avenues (1991)
The Night Highway (1990)

REDCAT, CalArts’ downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts, is located at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Tickets are $8 for the general public, $6 for students with valid ID. Seating is general admission. Tickets may be purchased at the REDCAT box office—located at the corner of 2nd and Hope Streets, or by calling 213.237.2800, or at www.redcat.org
_______________________________________________________

BILL MORRISON AT LOS ANGELES FILMFORUM
SUNDAY MARCH 11, 7:00 PM