Friday 3 October 19.00, Friday 10 October 19.00
Sunday 19 October 15.00, Friday 31 October 19.00
Sunday 9 November 15.00, Sunday 16 November 15.00
Friday 28 November 19.00, Sunday 7 December 15.00
Decasia plus The Film of Her
Programme duration 82’

Decasia

	Still from Decasia 2002

(Bill Morrison, US 2002, 70')
A recent hit on the international festival circuit, Decasia is composed entirely of decaying archival footage which seems to melt, burn, drip and deteriorate before our very eyes. But this is no mere celebration of the psychedelic beauty of decay, for Morrison has deliberately chosen images which seem to struggle against their own physical disintegration - images of human beings defying their own mortality through religious, death-defying or heroic acts.

Inspiring and infinitely suggestive, this haunting tapestry of long lost, partially erased images testifies not only to the fragile nature of film but to the transience of all human endeavour. Set to an eerie symphonic score by Michael Gordon which has been likened to the sound of a plane crashing in slow motion, Decasia reminds us, in the words of Morrison himself, of 'the many dreams we forget upon waking' .

Plus

The Film Of Her
(Bill Morrison, US 1996, 12' )
Consisting almost entirely of early 'found' footage, this is an imaginary romance about the preservation of the paper print collection in the Library of Congress.

'A meditation on memory and desire, a reflection on the fragile nature of film history, a love song to archivists, scholars and obsessives' (Shane Danielsen).

'Morrison plunges into the dark nitrate of the soul with contagious abandon'
(J Hoberman, Village Voice)

'Compelling and disturbing' (Kenneth Anger)

The opening screening on 3 October will be followed by an informal conversation between Bill Morrison and film writer and curator Helen de Witt.

Tate Modern Starr Auditorium
£3.50 (£2 concessions) each day

For tickets book online or call 020 7887 8888

 
bfi & TATE: Rare Finds
Film