Ghost Trip (2000)

An early Bill Morrison short, in this work he traverses an urban landscape utilizing high contrast black and white footage. The bustling nature of the setting is complimented by the energetic music by Michael Gordon.

The wind swirls up dust in a desert landscape. The picture is followed by images of clouds racing over the skyline of a city, of reflections on an expanse of water, of waves breaking over an embankment and of row upon row of burning candles. Then, gradually, music sets in: It initially accompanies the images, supports the patterns of movement in their characteristic style, pushes them ahead and enhances their drama. In Nemo, named after the captain in Jules Vernes «Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea», Morrison utilizes images of nature and natural phenomena to compose a cinematic poem about time and transience. (Claudia Slanar)

A film by Bill Morrison.

This is an excerpt from the 60-minute film commissioned for Conrad Cummings's opera of the same title, which was produced by Ridge Theater and staged at La Mama, NYC, in June, 1992.

A meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.

On the eve of his brain-damaged daughter's 18th birthday, Daniel Shaw must find a way to reconnect with his family.

Penthesilea, the first of six films made by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, traverses thousands of years to look at the image of the Amazonian woman in myth. It asks, among other questions, is the Amazonian woman a rare strong female image or is she a figure derived from male phantasy? The film explores the complexities of such questions, but does not seek any concrete answers.

At the Café des Poètes in Paris, a fight breaks out between the poet Orphée and a group of resentful upstarts. A rival poet, Cègeste, is killed, and a mysterious princess insists on taking Orpheus and the body away in her Rolls-Royce. Orphée soon finds himself in the underworld, where the Princess announces that she is, in fact, Death. Orpheus escapes in the car back to the land of the living, only to become obsessed with the car radio.

The making of 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog'.