News
Cinema of Decay
December 2017

This mini-documentary produced by Filmstruck focuses on the artistry of director Bill Morrison, who leverages decaying film stock from years past to tell new stories that are relevant to today's audiences. The decaying film lends brilliant visuals which add to Morrison's concept of storytelling.
BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News 11/26/19
Vanity Fair includes DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME on list of the 10 best films of the decade.
by Richard Lawson, chief film critic, Vanity Fair
11/26/19

"As haunting a film as there was this decade, Bill Morrison’s painstakingly stitched-together collage of old movie footage pulls us into a semi-distant past full of forgotten life. Dawson City: Frozen Time is, most literally, a documentary about the discovery of over 500 silent-film reels buried in a former gold rush town in the Yukon. In showing us clips of these lost movies, all about 100 years old, Morrison also tells the story of Dawson City, a boom town alive with want and opportunity, the locus of a human surge that was at once prodigious and ruinous. Zooming even further out, Dawson City: Frozen Time talks keenly—if not directly—about what it is to be people among one another, to strive for success in collaboration and competition, to seek out shared entertainment and diversion from the lonely harshness of life in the world. Basically, Morrison’s film captures the human experience through images of humans captured on film a century ago. It’s a lyrical movie, a mesmerizing glimpse into the past. There’s also something scary about Dawson City: Frozen Time, in all its reminding that the scramble and noise of our times—as advanced and busy as any have ever been—will one day disappear into their own kind of silence. Overlooked upon its release (by myself included), Dawson City: Frozen Time deserves an unearthing."

- Richard Lawson, chief film critic, Vanity Fair

BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News Venice International Film Festival
"Dawson City: Frozen Time"
World Premiere
Venice International Film Festival
August 31 - September 10, 2016

"Dawson City: Frozen Time"
(2016, 120 min)

World premiere in the Orizzonti section of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival

August 31 - September 10, 2016

Written, directed, and edited by
Bill Morrison

Music by
Alex Somers

Produced by
Madeleine Molyneaux and Bill Morrison

Associate producer
Paul Gordon
BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News
Cooper Union President's Citation awarded to Bill Morrison
May 2016

At the 2016 commencement on May 24, three alumni will receive a President's Citation, an honor not bestowed for several years. Awarded to alumni who have made important contributions to art, architecture, engineering or interdisciplinary studies, this year's recipients will be Bill Morrison A'89, John Leeper AR'85, and Jason Banfelder ChE'93 & MChE'96.

BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News HistoryToday, November 2015
Sound + Vision: Bill Morrison
by Rhys Griffiths
HistoryToday, November 2015

On the film archaeologist whose presentation of history celebrates decay and disintegration.
BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News American Cinematographer, September 28, 2015
Lost Forever? Movies in Peril and Movies Saved: Part 2
by John Bailey
American Cinematographer, September 28, 2015

Cinematographer John Bailey discusses "Light Is Calling" in his ASC blog.

BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News DVD, 40'
DVD release "Beyond Zero: 1914-1918"
Icarus Films Home Video release for North America
DVD, 40'
Release date: July 7, 2015

Sourcing original 35mm nitrate footage shot during the first World War, filmmaker Bill Morrison (DECASIA, THE GREAT FLOOD) pieces together a unique visual exploration from footage that has never been viewed by modern audiences, and will never be seen again outside of this film. Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov created the score, commissioned and performed by the Kronos Quartet.

"The resulting work of art resides in a space between documentary and fiction, indeed dissolves the difference.”
- Pop Matters
BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News 5-disc box set (4 DVD + 1 BD), 455 minutes
Collected Works (1996 - 2013)
Icarus Films Home Video release for North America
5-disc box set (4 DVD + 1 BD), 455 minutes
Release date: September 23, 2014

"Morrison’s world is one of the most breathtaking and haltingly disturbing cinematic realms of our time, and this set is a fantastic way to explore it." - RogerEbert.com

This five-disc set comprises 16 works by filmmaker and multimedia artist Bill Morrison, called "one of the most adventurous American filmmakers" by Variety. Morrison's work is characterized by his sensitive approach to found, often decaying film footage, and his close collaboration with contemporary conmposers, including Vijay Iyer, Johann Johannsson and Bill Frisell.

BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News 3-disc Blu-ray set, 460 minutes
Selected Films: 1996-2014
BFI Home Video release for UK
3-disc Blu-ray set, 460 minutes
Release date: May 4, 2015

Over the past twenty years, Bill Morrison has built a filmography of more than thirty striking and original works which have been presented in cinemas, museums, galleries and concert halls worldwide. Making use of rare archival footage, which has often been decayed by the passing of time, Morrison explores the power of film as a medium which is evocative of memory and gives rise to a sense of collective mythology. Morrison’s exquisite and timeless films are scored by the cream of the US underground / avant-garde music scene, including Dave Douglas, Henryk Górecki and Bill Frisell.

This extensive collection makes Morrison’s acclaimed films available in Europe for the first time.

Special features:
• Presented in High Definition
• Interview with Bill Morrison (2013, 9 mins)
• Special packaging with extensive booklet
BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News Smithsonian Magazine
"The Great Flood" receives the 2014 American Ingenuity Award for Historical Scholarship
Smithsonian Magazine
November 2014

The filmmaker's found-footage masterpiece about the Great Flood immerses you in history.

Epic poem by Jeff MacGregor
Photo credit: Joni Sternbach


BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News
"The Great Flood" named to Jordan Hoffman's Top Ten List of 2014

"I don’t know if this is documentary or non-narrative experiment or a prolonged music video for people of peculiar taste. All I know is that it is gorgeous and haunting and altogether human and important. The biggest question is why there aren’t more movies like it?...The Great Flood is a benediction back through history and you owe it to past generations – and yourself – to pay attention." - Jordan Hoffman
BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News Chicago Sun-Times, 5/3/14
'Black Sox' footage a historic discovery
by Brian Sandalow
Chicago Sun-Times, 5/3/14

Documentary filmmaker Bill Morrison found a newsreel from the 1919 ‘‘Black Sox’’ World Series tucked away in a Canadian archive while researching his new film "Dawson City : Frozen Time".

BILL MORRISON • HYPNOTIC PICTURES News Washington Post, 12/17/13
"Decasia" named to 2013 National Film Registry
by Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post, 12/17/13

The first film from the 21st century added to the list, which is restricted to works at least 10 years old, is “Decasia,” a 2002 experimental collage piece by New York artist Bill Morrison.