: Bill Morrison: Re-Compositions
Morrison employs high-resolution scans of nitrate footage, as well as newly created CGI renderings, to depict views of the heavens at twenty-four frames per second. A 1930 cinematographic record by cameraman Jack Painter of a crowd expectantly waiting for the release of Al Capone from the Eastern State Penitentiary is manipulated by Morrison to capture the prolonged state of their unfulfilled expectations. 2003. 2012. The score, composed by Dave Douglas, is performed by Douglas and Keystone. 2004. Each program contains short, thematically linked films, including split-screen or mirrored compositions, loops, revisions, adaptations, silent documentaries, and explorations of nitrate film decay. 16 min. 2013. Spark of Being: Observations of Familial Love and Observations of Romantic Love. Music by Todd Reynolds. Ascension. The Bells (1926), directed by James Young, stars Lionel Barrymore as an innkeeper who befriends and then cruelly betrays a Jewish guest; he drags his corpse into an incinerator in a foreshadowing of the Holocaust. Program 5
February 3–March 2, 2015Image-Driven Documentaries
RE: Awakenings. 26 min. Just Ancient Loops. Back to the Soil. Bill Morrison: Re-Compositions is a gallery installation that accompanies Bill Morrison: Compositions, the filmmaker’s comprehensive, mid-career retrospective at MoMA. 2004. Music by Bill Frisell. 18 min. Morrison often uses decomposing 35mm nitrate film as a metaphor for the frailty of the human body, as well as an illustration of the simultaneously ephemeral and enduring nature of the human spirit. 2010. Music by David Lang (parts 1 and 2), Michael Gordon (part 3). Morrison’s films are driven chiefly by images and music, and narratives are teased out rather than explicitly stated. 7 min. All Vows. 2014. Program 3
December 9, 2014–January 5, 2015Narrative Adaptations
The Mesmerist. 18 min. 7 min. The score includes a solo saxophone composed by Glass. These two middle chapters from Spark of Being (2010), Morrison's retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, are edits depicting the Creature's observations of human intimacy, which spur his own longing for companionship. 13 min. 2012. Morrison steals from, and butchers, the final scene of the original feature to re-define the story. Music selected by Philip Glass. Silent, 1 min. Music by Dave Douglas. 2005. 2004/2014, from Light Is Calling, 2004. The title of this film is an English translation of Kol Nidre, a Yom Kippur incantation that nullifies any future vows made without intention; the scenes feature a couple in conflict. Koller and Freud. Becker. The visuals for his works are constructed from early silent dramatic films and found footage stock, and the soundtracks are made in tandem with composers and musicians. Music by Michael Harrison. Music by Michael Gordon. An environmental meditation in three parts, this film features distressed archival images from 1920s newsreels. Three short, silent works, all based on scenes from Morrison’s films made from old dramas and found footage, reveal how decomposition within the archival film image can create abstractly beautiful and meaningfully potent alterations. 2002/2014, from Decasia, 2002. Who By Water. Release. Program 1
October 14–November 10, 2014Splitscreen Loops
Outerborough. 8 min. This world premiere is inspired by footage shot in 1927 of Jewish farming colonies in Eastern Europe by Morrison’s grandfather James H. Oliver Sacks of his patients at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx, who were administered the drug L-Dopa in the summer of 1969 and “awakened” after decades of inactivity. 2013. Music by Michael Gordon. The images in this film are reframed newsreel outtakes of passengers on a steamship; the title is taken from a Rosh Hashanah prayer.
