Bill Morrison (director)

Bill Morrison (born November 17, 1965) is an American, New York–based filmmaker and artist. His films often combine rare archival material set to contemporary music, and have been screened in theaters, cinemas, museums, galleries, and concert halls around the world.

Morrison was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Reed College from 1983 to 1985, and graduated with a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in 1989. He received the President's Citation from Cooper Union[1] in 2016.

Morrison had a mid-career retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, October 2014 – March 2015.[2] He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,[3] and has received the Alpert Awards in the Arts,[4] a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital,[5] and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2003).[6]

His theatrical projection design with Ridge Theater has been recognized with two Bessie Awards,[7] and an Obie Award.[8]

Morrison has collaborated with some of the most influential composers and performers of our time, including John Adams, Gavin Bryars, Bill Frisell, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon,[9] Henryk Górecki, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Kronos Quartet, David Lang, Steve Reich, & Julia Wolfe among many others.

Decasia (2002), his feature-length collaboration with composer Michael Gordon, was selected by the Library of Congress to its National Film Registry in 2013,[10] becoming the first film of the 21st century selected to the list. It has been hailed by J. Hoberman as "the most widely praised American avant-garde film of the fin de siècle."[11] The director Errol Morris reportedly commented while viewing Decasia that "This may be the greatest movie ever made".[12] The film was originally commissioned by the Basel Sinfonietta to be shown on three screens surrounding the audience, behind which 55 musicians performed Michael Gordon's score.

In 2011, Spark of Being, a collaboration with composer/trumpeter Dave Douglas, won The Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.[13]

In 2014, The Great Flood, a collaboration with composer/guitarist Bill Frisell, received the Smithsonian Magazine's American Ingenuity Award for Historical Scholarship.[14]

In 2016 Morrison presented the world premiere of Dawson City: Frozen Time in the Orizzonti section of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival,[15] and the North American premiere at the 54th New York Film Festival.[16] In 2017, The film was released by Kino Lorber,[17] and was named the best Documentary of 2017 by the Boston Society of Film Critics,[18] was awarded a Critics' Choice Award for Most Innovative Documentary,[19] an International Documentary Association (IDA) Creative Recognition Award for Best Editing,[20] and was included on over 100 critics lists of the best films of 2017.[21] In 2017 the film was released in Italy by Cineteca di Bologna (as Dawson City: Il tempo tra i ghiacci),[22] and in 2019 it was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK by Second Run DVD.[23]

Morrison's collected works through 2014 were released as a 5-disc box set from Icarus Films in September 2014,[24] and a 3-disc Blu-ray box set from the British Film Institute in May 2015.[25]

Morrison has occasionally acted in other directors' films, notably Andrew Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation[26] and its quasi-sequel Peoples House.[27]

Filmography as director
  • Cinematograph (2018)
  • Electricity (2018)[28]
  • The Unchanging Sea (2018)[29]
  • The Letter (2018)
  • Weaving (2018)
  • Dawson City: Postscript (2017)[30]
  • Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)[31]
  • Little Orphant Annie (2016)
  • The Dockworker's Dream (2016)[32]
  • Back to the Soil (2014)
  • Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 (2014)[33]
  • The Great Flood (2013)[34]
  • All Vows (2013)
  • Re:Awakenings (2013)
  • Just Ancient Loops (2012)
  • Tributes - Pulse (2011)
  • The Miners' Hymns (2011)[35]
  • Spark of Being (2010)[36]
  • Release (2010)
  • Dystopia (2008)
  • Fuel (2007)
  • Who By Water (2007)
  • The Highwater Trilogy (2006)
  • How To Pray (2006)
  • Outerborough (2005)
  • Gotham (2004)
  • Light is Calling (2004)[37][38]
  • The Mesmerist (2003)
  • East River (2003)
  • Decasia (2002)[39]
  • Trinity (2000)
  • Ghost Trip (2000)
  • City Walk (1999)
  • The Film of Her (1996)[40]
  • Nemo (1995)
  • The World Is Round (1994)
  • The Death Train (1993)
  • Footprints (1992)
  • Photo Op (1992)
  • Lost Avenues (1991)
  • Night Highway (1990)

References
  1. "President's Citations Announced for 2016 Commencement | The Cooper Union". Cooper.edu. 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  2. "Bill Morrison: Re-Compositions". Moma.org. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  3. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Bill Morrison". Gf.org. 2016-11-16. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  4. "Bill Morrison | The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts". Herbalpertawards.org. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  5. "Investing in Artists who Shape the Future". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-05-31. Retrieved 2015-05-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "New York News, Food, Culture and Events". Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  9. Michael Gordon / Ridge Theater "Lightning at our feet" - #3-YouTube
  10. "Cinema with the Right Stuff Marks 2013 National Film Registry | Library of Congress". Loc.gov. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  11. "The Poetry of Decay". Village Voice. 2007-01-16. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  12. Lawrence Weschler (2002-12-22). "Sublime Decay". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-07-04. Retrieved 2015-05-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "Coming to Terms With One of America's Greatest Natural Disasters | Innovation". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  15. 73rd Venice International Film Festival#Horizons
  16. "Dawson City: Frozen Time - NYFF54".
  17. "Dawson City: Frozen Time".
  18. "2017 winners". Boston Society of Film Critics. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  19. "Documentary Awards - Critics' Choice Awards". Archived from the original on 2017-11-12. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  20. "IDA Documentary Awards 2017: Nominees".
  21. "Dawson city: frozen in time". Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  22. {http://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/dawson-city-il-tempo-tra-i-ghiacci}%5B%5D
  23. {http://www.secondrundvd.com/release_dawson.html}
  24. "Bill Morrison: Collected Works (1996 - 2013)". icarusfilms.com/if-morr. 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  25. "Buy Bill Morrison: Selected Works 1996-2014 (Blu-ray) - BFI". Shop.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  26. Mutual Appreciation (2005)-IMDB
  27. Peoples House (Video 2007)-IMDB
  30. Dawson City: Frozen Time (Blu-ray): DVD Talk Review of the Blu-ray
  31. Director Bill Morrison-Filmstruck on YouTube
  36. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-11-23. Retrieved 2015-05-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  37. CSO Sounds & Stories-Michael Gordon on ‘The Light Is Calling’
  38. Light Is Calling (SD)-YouTube
  40. "The Film of Her". Icarus Films. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
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