The Residue of Vanished Lives: Bill Morrison’s darker

In an introduction for Bill Morrison’s new film darker, Nitrate Picture Show festival director Peter Bagrov joked that when archivists and preservationists come across reels of decomposed nitrate film, they frequently want to send them straight to Morrison. Decomposing celluloid, after all, is Morrison’s aesthetic signature and favorite subject matter. In the past he has used this material as the basis for essayistic documentaries, as with perhaps his most famous film Dawson City, Frozen Time. darker, however, sees Morrison following...