ABOUT THE SHOW

FILM at LACMA presents classic and contemporary narrative and documentary films, artists and their influences, emerging auteurs, international showcases, special guest-curated programs, and conversations with artists and special guests.

In conjunction with the exhibition City of Cinema: Paris 1850–1907, FILM at LACMA presents two documentaries highlighting early cinema and post-screenings conversations with each director.

Join FILM at LACMA for a special screening of Dawson City: Frozen Time (2017), followed by a conversation with Director Bill Morrison and Britt Salvesen, Department Head, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and Prints & Drawings.

This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon. The films were seldom, if ever, returned. The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans. Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers. Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation.

RSVPs will close two hours prior to showtime. Viewing instructions will be sent to the provided email just prior to the scheduled start time. The film will be available until midnight, Sunday, May 1.