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Light is Calling

A Film by Bill Morrison
Music by Michael Gordon

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Decasia and Light Is Calling are included on one Blu-Ray

"In Light Is Calling, a deteriorating scene from James Young's The Bells (1926) was optically reprinted and edited to Michael Gordon's seven-minute composition. The aesthetic of Morrison's film is inexorably intertwined with many of Michael Gordon's pieces. We watch a decomposing film reel of a soldier who meets a mysterious woman in the woods. A meditation on the random and fleeting nature of life and love, as seen through the roiling emulsion of an ancient film. Morrison's short was made through the process of reshooting decomposing black and white film, and the result is a dreamy, melting, light-drenched scene." —The Viennale

"Light is Calling [is one of Morrison's] more accessible works, an incomparably beautiful and sad film experiment. …A militiaman riding; a woman waiting; a meeting; a departure. Simple though it is, this story is enough to give Morrison's work a backbone. As images emerge through the painterly swirls of emulsion, the viewer is invited-nay, required-to reflect on the ephemeral quality of the film and, by extension, its characters. For those with limited patience for non-narrative "artsy" films, Light is Calling is just the right length. Only in the final thirty seconds or so does Gordon's haunting avant-garde score cross the line into dissonance, breaking the delicate connection it held with Morrison's images. Still, this breathtaking film manages to capture your emotions as well as your eyes." —Christopher Zinsli, Film Threat

"Ecstatic! In which bodies and movements dissolve in swirling waves of golden light, the film's decay radiating as a glorious self-immolation."—Maximilian Le Cain, Senses of Cinema

"Heart-stoppingly beautiful."—Zoetica Ebb, Coilhouse Magazine

Best Film, Berlin Interfilm
Grand Prize, Etrange Festival
World Premiere, 2004 Sundance Film Festival
Juror's Choice Award, 2004 Black Maria Film and Video Festival
International Premiere, 2004 Rotterdam Film Festival, The Netherlands
Media City 2004, Canada
2004 Ann Arbor Film Festival
2004 Minneapolis Film Festival
2004 Images Festival, Canada
2004 San Francisco International Film Festival
2004 Tribeca Film Festival
2004 Norwegian Short Film Festival, Norway
2004 Los Angeles Film Festival
2004 Vila do Conde ISFF, Portugal
2004 Festival del Cinema Ritrovato, Italy
2004 Edinburgh International Film Festival, UK
Grand Prix and Audience Award, 2004 Etrange Festival, France
2004 Athens International Film Festival
2004 Onion City Film Festival
2004 Vienna International Film Festival, Austria
2004 Impakt Festival, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Best Film, 2004 Berlin International Short Film Festival, Germany
2004 International Short Film Festival Winterthur, Switzerland
2005 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France
2005 Adelaide Film Festival, Australia
2005 Nemo Film Festival, Paris, France
2005 Festival Internacional de Jovenes Realizadores de Granada
2005 Brisbane International Film Festival, Australia

8 minutes / Color
Release: 2004
Copyright: 2004

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