It seems improbable. Impossible even. In 1978 a veritable treasure trove of silent movies was unearthed in Canada. By unearthed, I literally mean unearthed. During a construction project hundreds of reels of film where found buried in the frozen tundra of Dawson City, Canada. How those films ended up there, how they got discovered and the preservation of those films is at the heart of filmmaker Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time. The film is being screened on Friday at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel with live orchestral performance of the score written by Alex Somers.
Filmgoers will know Somers from his scores for such films as Honey Boy (currently playing), Captain Fantastic and Hale County This Morning, This Evening. Music fans might know him as a producer, engineer and mixer of several Sigur Rós albums. He and Jónsi, the band’s lead singer, also released an album together called Riceboy Sleeps. The two are also partners.
Performing this score will be Wild Up lead by Christopher Rountree. A woman’s chorus from Tonality also performs the score.
Dawson City was the final stop for film distribution. It was cost-prohibitive to send the prints back, so they found their final resting place in this Canadian town. Many of these films were thought to be lost forever. They didn’t come out unscathed by time and the elements, but more survived than expected. It’s truly a remarkable story and Morrison has created a thoroughly captivating film.
If the saying that “truth is stranger than fiction,” then Dawson City: Frozen Time is the perfect documentary to prove that point.
We will have an interview with Somers later this week. Be sure to check back for that.
Photo of First Avenue in Dawson in 1898 by Ernest F. Keir/Courtesy of Vancouver Public Library