The New Yorker Documentary Films presents

INCIDENT
(30’, 2023, USA)

Directed by Bill Morrison
Produced by Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven

Tagline:
A police murder told entirely with their cameras.

Synopsis:
Through a montage of surveillance and police body-worn camera footage, a reconstruction of a deadly shooting by a Chicago police officer becomes an investigation into how a narrative begins to take shape in the aftermath.

Director’s statement:
INCIDENT is both a deconstruction and a reconstitution of a specific event that transpires over 20 minutes in real time, using multiple synchronized viewpoints. One of the foundational fault lines on which America was built is exposed once again: the inability to reconcile the right to bear arms with the fear of others having those same rights. The same paradox is also applied to the police camera here – if it doesn’t protect you, it is a potentially damaging witness in another’s hands. I was inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s "Rashomon" (1951), in which one event is interpreted in several ways, depending on who is telling the story. I thought about how this could still be applied to a modern-day crime story with the use of surveillance footage, which seeks to find an objective truth, but is still beholden to the narrative of whoever presents the footage.

• 2025 Academy Awards nominee Documentary Short

Awards:
• Best Nonfiction Short Honoree – Cinema Eye Honors, January 2025
• Main Award – International Festival Signs of the Night, Berlin Edition, December 2024
• Truth Seekers Award – Tehran International Short Film Festival, October 2024
• Grand Prix – Lille International Short Film Festival, Lille, FR, September 2024
• Best Documentary – Salute Your Shorts, Los Angeles, US, August 2024
• Edward Snowden Award – 10th International Festival Signes de Nuit, Bangkok, TH, July 2024
• Best Documentary – Walla Walla Movie Crush, US, July 2024
• Best Use of Footage in a Short Documentary – Focal International Awards, UK, June 2024
• Best Short Film – IFF Art Film Košice, SK, June 2024
• Grand Jury Prize, Medium-length Film – Champs Élysées Film Festival, FR, June 2024
• Best Short Documentary – Florida Film Festival, US, April 2024 (Academy Award Qualifier)
• Best Documentary – Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, FR, February 2024
• Best Short Documentary – International Documentary Association, US, December 2023
• Best Short Film – UnArchive Found Footage Festival, Rome, IT, May 2023

Contact:
Bill Morrison, +1-917-445-8529
billmorrison65@gmail.com

Pullquotes:

“The film is one of the best portraits of systemic racism in US law enforcement.”
- Ruth Somalo, Documenta Madrid catalog, May 2023

“Incident is more than a surprise. It’s a breakthrough that offers the possibility of a new form of archival cine-education about aspects of American culture that have been “lost” until recently, buried within official public archives. ‘Incident’ has the brevity, directness, and clarity of a Hemingway short story.”
- Scott MacDonald, The Edge - Park Center for Independent Media, May 2023