Dawson City: Frozen Time

Name: Dawson City: Frozen Time
Genre: History, Documentary
Released: June 9, 2017
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 86
Cast: Bill Morrison, Bill O'Farrell, Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates

2017

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 14 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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6.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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Dawson City: Frozen Time

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: June 9, 2017 | Not Rated

Starring: Bill Morrison, Bill O'Farrell, Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, Kathy Jones-Gates, Michael Gates, Sam Kula

Summary: This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors toThis meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s. Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area. It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon. The films were seldom, if ever, returned. The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans. Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers. Dawson City: Frozen Time depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation. [Kino Lorber]… Expand

Director: Bill Morrison

Genre(s): History, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 120 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Michael Atkinson

Jun 8, 2017

It’s an orgy for film geeks and history jonesers, to be sure, and the revelation of how exactly the prints got waylaid and then buried in the permafrost, saved by virtue of Dawson City’s fading away in the twentieth century, proves a sweet narrative reward. Read full review

100

Kenneth Turan

Jun 15, 2017

The thrilling documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time is indescribable not because it's ambiguous (it's totally straightforward) but because it does so many things so beautifully it is hard to know where to begin. Read full review

100

Richard Brody

Jul 4, 2017

The film locates extraordinary political and cultural tributaries, marked by archival footage, that arise from the history of Dawson City and the gold rush. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Jun 6, 2017

Throughout, direcgor Bill Morrison mixes documentarian detail with an ecstatic sense of poetry. Read full review

Kenji Fujishima

Jun 8, 2017

As impressively exhaustive as it is as a work of history, Dawson City: Frozen Time plays even more affectingly as Morrison’s most direct love letter to cinema: as a tool not only for recording history, but also for capturing between-the-lines truths that history books can only graze. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Jul 12, 2017

The music links it all together, creating the sense of some overarching, unseen logic connecting all human activity and making everything inevitable. Indeed, it’s that last impression that elevates Dawson City: Frozen Time to the level of poetry. The story of the town is interesting, without being scintillating. Read full review

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

Jun 7, 2017

It’s much more involving as a work of pure and hypnotic collage than as a researched narrative of facts, dates, and names. Read full review

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User Reviews

Trailesque

Jan 21, 2022

A fascinating but flawed documentary that was based on a cache of old silent films discovered in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. The narrative tells of the boom and bust cycles of the town, beginning with the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. It also tells of the terrors of old nitrateA fascinating but flawed documentary that was based on a cache of old silent films discovered in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. The narrative tells of the boom and bust cycles of the town, beginning with the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. It also tells of the terrors of old nitrate film, how combustible it was, and the many major fires it was responsible for. Images from the old movies are intercut with scenes from Charlie Chaplin's Gold Rush, interviews, and period photos. Alex Somers's music adds some nice atmosphere. Unfortunately much of the old film footage is in horrible condition and is hard to watch; it might have been nice if there had been some digital restoration or masking done. Additionally, the subtitles are small and clearly designed for theater screenings.… Expand

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