Bill Morrison
"One of the most adventurous American filmmakers" - Variety, 12/11/11
Bill Morrison‘s films often combine archival film material set to contemporary music. He has collaborated with some of the most influential composers of our time, including John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, Dave Douglas, Richard Einhorn, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gørecki, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich, among many others.
“Decasia” (67 min, 2002), a collaboration with the composer Michael Gordon, was selected to the US Library of Congress’ 2013 National Film Registry, becoming the most modern film named to the list that preserves works of “great cultural, historic or aesthetic significance to the nation’s cinematic heritage.” Morrison's films are also in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and the EYE Film Institute. He is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Alpert Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Grant, Creative Capital, and a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His theatrical projection design has been recognized with two Bessie awards and an Obie Award.
In 2013, Morrison was honored with retrospective programs in four different countries: the Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis; the Vila Do Conde Short Film Festival, Portugal; the Adelaide Film Festival, Australia; and the Aarhus Film Festival, Denmark.
In 2014 “The Great Flood” opened theatrically in the US, and was released on DVD by Icarus Films. “The Miners Hymns” was screened with live musical performances as part of a seven city tour of the US, Amsterdam, and the UK, produced by Forma Arts & Media.
Morrison will have a mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, NY in October – November 2014.
In 2021 Morrison became a member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. His most recent feature-length doc, The Village Detective: a song cycle (2021) is being released theatrically by Kino Lorber in September 2021.
Morrison’s work is distributed by Icarus Films in North America, and the BFI in the UK.
Website:
https://billmorrisonfilm.com/