Imagina / Ghost of the Past / USA, France 2025
“The ghost of the past destroyed the deceptive illusion of the present.” A melodramatically playful and melancholically sombre short film, which reinterprets the incomplete silent picture Survivre (1923, Édouard Chimot), establishing a new order in the tale of a daydreaming passport officer while also adding a musical accompaniment. The hypnotic composition by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell underscores the mood of the film, while time has supplied its patina. How does a work crafted over a century ago speak to us now? And how might disintegrating film stock enhance the story? In his dream-like piece director Bill Morrison skilfully summons the chimeras of a myriad species and demonstrates why iconic Kenneth Anger described his work as “compelling and disturbing”.
Viktor Palák
7 min / Color, DCP
Director Bill Morrison
/ Music Bill Frisell
/ Editor Bill Morrison
/ Producer Bill Morrison
/ Production Hypnotic Pictures
/ Cast Sylvio de Pedrelli, Justine Johnson
/ Sales Hypnotic Pictures
Bill Morrison (1965, Chicago). Selected filmography: City Walk (1999, short), Decasia (2002), Light Is Calling (2004, short), The Miners’ Hymns (2011), Back to the Soil (2014, short), Little Orphant Annie (2016, short), Ghost of the Past (2025, short).
Hypnotic Pictures
400 E 10th Street, NY 10009, New York
United States of America
Phone: +1 917 445 8529
E-mail: [email protected]
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