Decasia
Director: Bill Morrison
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 2.0
Morrison assembles various strands of decomposing film stock - it 'literally' does show what happens to the images when they are not preserved, but 'figuratively' it does not quite succeed as a meditation on mortality. Stylistically, it's a combination of Godfrey Reggio's visual symphonies with Stan Brakhage's preference for abstraction and altered film, and is quite eerie at times (old black and white footage is inherently spooky - it's watching now-deceased individuals come back to life), but the overall meaning of it could be surmised within ten minutes of watching and the pieces of film don't appear to be arranged in any precise order (other than the image of a man dancing in circles that begins and ends the picture). The soundtrack is similar to Philip Glass' minimalist - and to some, very taxing - compositions.
