''Decasia'' is a 2002 American

collage film Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing found footage from disparate sources. The term has also been applied to the physical collaging of materials onto film stock. Surrealist roots The surrealist movement played a critical role i ...

by Bill Morrison, featuring an original score by Michael Gordon. In 2013, ''Decasia'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Summary

The film is a meditation on old, decaying

silent films A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

, featuring segments of earlier movies re-edited and integrated into a new narrative. Critic Glen Kenny described ''Decasia'' as an "abstract narrative about mortality in all of its manifestations." It begins and ends with scenes of a

dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage i ...

and is bookended with old footage showing how film is processed. Nothing was done to accelerate the decomposition of the actual film prints, some of which were copied from the University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections as well as deteriorating film footage that Morrison found at the Library of Congress. The film's musical soundtrack features several detuned pianos and an orchestra playing out of phase with itself, adding to the fractured and decomposing nature of the film. Various films that were incorporated into ''Decasia'' have been positively identified:

J. Farrell MacDonald John Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed fort ...

's ''

The Last Egyptian ''The Last Egyptian: A Romance of the Nile'' is a novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. The book was published anonymously on May 1, 1908Katharine M. Rogers, ''L. Frank Baum, Creator of Oz: A Biography'', New Y ...

'' (1914),

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

, produced, and based on the novel by

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...

;

William S. Hart William Surrey Hart (December 6, 1864 – June 23, 1946) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered as a foremost Western star of the silent era who "imbued all of his characters with honor and inte ...

's ''

Truthful Tulliver ''Truthful Tulliver'' is a 1917 American silent Western film directed by William S. Hart and starring Hart, Alma Rubens and Nina Byron. Footage was featured in Decasia, an American collage film by director Bill Morrisson. Plot Truthful Tul ...

'' (1917);

Norman Dawn Norman O. Dawn (25 May 1884 – 2 February 1975) was an early American film director. He made several improvements on the matte shot to apply it to motion picture, and was the first director to use rear projection in film production. Dawn's in ...

's '' A Tokyo Siren'' (1920); John H. Collins's ''The Man Who Could Not Sleep'' (1915); Eddie Lyons's ''Peace and Quiet'' (1921) and

Phillips Smalley Wendell Phillips Smalley (August 7, 1865 – May 2, 1939) was an American silent film director and actor. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the grandson of Wendell Phillips; he was the son of George Washburn Smalley, a war corres ...

's ''The Mind Cure'' (1912). Various

Fox Movietone Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Australia and New Zealand until 197 ...

newsreel footage were also used.

Legacy

In 2013, ''Decasia'' was selected for preservation by the

. It was the first film from the 21st century to be selected. ''Decasia'' was included in the September 2014 box set release of Bill Morrison's collected works, from Icarus Films.

References

External links

''Decasia'' essay by Daniel Eagan at National Film Registry
* * * {{Amg movie, 261195, Decasia 2002 films Silent films American avant-garde and experimental films American black-and-white films Collage film United States National Film Registry films American independent films Non-narrative films Films directed by Bill Morrison (director) 2000s avant-garde and experimental films 2000s American films