Dochouse Presents: The Great Flood Special Preview

The Great Flood - Special Preview + Director Q&A

Dir. Bill Morrison
USA - 2013 - 78 mins


'Critic's Pick! Visual poetry, sublime.' - The New York Times

'[An] extraordinary confluence of talents and subject-matter.' - The Telegraph

Archival wizard Bill Morrison's film finds lyricism in disaster The Wall Street Journal

Almost a century before Katrina, the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 is still the most destructive in American history. The river broke out of its banks in 145 places and inundated 27,000 square miles of towns and farmland. Part of the Flood's enduring legacy was a mass exodus of destitute sharecroppers. This forced the 'Great Migration' of rural southerners to northern cities and saw the Delta Blues reborn as the Chicago Blues, R&B, and Rock and Roll.

This mesmerising documentary from filmmaker and multimedia artist Bill Morrison (Decasia, The Miner's Hymns) is created from hours of richly textured archive footage from 1927. Minimal text and no commentary create a powerful portrait of this seminal moment in American history, with composer Bill Frisell's evocative score adding an ominous modern resonance.

Official Selection: 2014 San Francisco Green Film Festival

Director Bill Morrison will join us after for a Q&A via Skype.

Bill Morrison is a New York-based filmmaker and artist, best known for his experimental collage film Decasia (2002). His films have been screened at festivals, museums and concert halls worldwide, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Orphan film Symposium, The Tate Modern, London, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. Eight of his titles have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.