Screened as part of NZIFF 2005

Bill Morrison Short Films 

Directed by Bill Morrison

This selection of Bill Morrison’s mesmerising visual meditations spans more than a decade, Morrison’s short abstractions are mini histories and stories about the fleeting and unpredictable nature of cinema – and life itself.

USA
70 minutes

Director

This selection of Bill Morrison’s mesmerising visual meditations spans more than a decade. Melding morsels of found footage from such diverse sources as educational movies, television news broadcasts or early silent films with material he has shot himself, Morrison’s short abstractions are mini histories and stories about the fleeting and unpredictable nature of cinema – and life itself. The programme begins with haunted white lines stalking across the black highway of the screen and culminates in a twin railroad ride simultaneously moving ahead and backwards in a giddy sequence of overlapping rhythms. Just prior, caught in a different kind of dance, a pair of courting lovers repeatedly emerges from and is ravished by bubbling ochre emulsion. They call out from the past and to each other, melting away before they seem to meet. Sublime. — Sandra Reid

“At once haunting, mysterious, and incredibly beautiful” — Errol Morris 

The Night Highway (1990, 9 mins), Lost Avenues (1991, 6 mins), Footprints (1992, 6 mins), Photo Op (1992, 5 mins), The Death Train (1993, 17 mins), The World is Round (1994, 5 mins), Nemo (1995, 6 mins), Light is Calling (2004, 8 mins), Outerborough (2005, 8 mins).