A work of resurrected living history, Dawson City: Frozen Time is transportive in a manner few films—non-fiction or otherwise—achieve. Director Bill Morrison uses clips from hundreds of highly combustible nitrate silent-movie reels that were unearthed in the Yukon River outpost of Dawson City in 1978, as well as archival photos and on-screen text, to present a ghostly history lesson about northern Canada’s turn-of-the-century gold rush, and of Dawson City itself.

From the fires that frequently burned it to the ground, to the indigenous populations that were pushed aside by settlers, to the Hollywood and business luminaries that once lived there (including Donald’s Trump’s grandfather, who began his fortune with a brothel), it’s an awe-inspiring sweeping study. Morrison further conjures a sense of the past—and of life’s impermanence—through expert montages of long-forgotten silent dramas and comedies. Set to Alex Somers’ gorgeous, melancholy score, those faded, corrupted black-and-white images feel like echoes from a distant era, here lovingly resurrected so that they might live again.

Part of The Center’s BIG IDEA project Unraveling: Reimagining Colonization in the Americas, Mar 8–May 22, 2019.

Running time 2 hours.