The Mesmerist
Reassembly: The Films of Bill Morrison
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16m
Directed by Bill Morrison | 16 mins | 2003
A decay-pitted nitrate print of James Young’s 1926 Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff vehicle "The Bells" takes on an almost psychedelic, hallucinatory quality via Morrison’s re-edit, which sets a scene at the carnival midway to an ominous, rumbling score courtesy legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.
Up Next in Reassembly: The Films of Bill Morrison
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The Letter
Directed by Bill Morrison | 12 mins | 2018
A story of overlapping love triangles told through the accounts of two women, made with the deteriorating remnants of silent film intertitles. -
Her Violet Kiss
Directed by Bill Morrison | 5 mins | 2021
Produced during—and obliquely referent to—the pandemic years, Morrison’s film re-cuts and re-contextualizes a scene from a partially lost German silent, 1928’s "Liebeshölle" aka "Pawns of Passion", matched with an atmospheric score by Peruvian American co... -
Buried News
Directed by Bill Morrison | 12 mins | 2021
In "Buried News", Morrison employs newsreel films from the early years of the previous century to ruminate on the media’s role in manipulating narratives around race in America then and today.