Dawson City: Frozen Time

A documentary that tries to do just a little too much. The story itself is fascinating - the discovery in 1978 of a trove of lost silent films preserved in the permafrost of Dawson City, Canada. To me, the 'star of the show' in the documentary needs to be the films, and I would have liked the focus to be there, after an introductory explanation of context. Instead, director Bill Morrison rewinds us all the way back through the history of Dawson, from its founding, the Yukon gold rush, and the subsequent changes to the town over the years. He also takes us through various news stories and social movements from the 1910's and 1920's, as they relate to footage that was discovered.

I like history and some of this was interesting to me, and at its best he matches photos to footage (for example, a socialist agitator being deported back to Russia). At its worst he gets into minutiae of Dawson's history, and instead of just showing some number of the silent films fragments themselves with explanation of the actors, attempts to match footage to what people in the present are talking about. For example, one of the discoverers of the trove says he had to call someone up to come have a look at it, so as he's describing that, we see footage of someone on the phone in an old movie. The background music is awfully eerie and odd in places too. It was interesting enough to watch and a lot of research and care went into the production, so depending on your interests, you may like it better.

At first, I thought this was an okay film.10 minutes later I thought it was very good. 10 minutes after that, I realized it was excellent. The pace is slow, deliberate, and has more than its share of "Holy cow!" moments. Be patient as there's a huge story that needs to be told and it has a cast of thousands. Using old movie footage (from films both preserved in Hollywood and "found" in Dawson City) and interviews with some of the people "who were there", Bill Morrison has crafted a big story of a small town in a very big world with history playing out all around it.

An extraordinary piece of documentary film-making. Bravo!

...One thing really really went on my nerves : the subtitles. They are way too small, it's a real pain to read, especially when english isn't your primary language. Plus the excerpts are too short, sometimes like one second, then one second of another and another and another etc. You don't even have the time to understand what you are seeing and read the stupid tiny subtitles that you are flooded with tons of others 1 second excepts... So I would say to the artistic director of this movie : please find another job and don't ever work on another documentary again.

If you like this sort of thing... Photographs and snippets of film from the late 1890s lead to a wonderful series of films of very tough/hard people who encountered their own Bitcoin bubble in the shape of the Klondike gold rush. And there are some very interesting names in the history of this little gold rush town. It's a matter of taste but I am fascinated by films of long dead people who once thought they were at the forefront of civilization. Old time photos are good for imaginings, but films of people going about their business causes a lot more 'connectedness' between the viewer and the subjects. "I know someone who acts just like that!" We are presented with photos and film footage that makes one think "Deadwood" probably wasn't really such an exaggeration.

This is a must see documentary. It is a fascinating story of both the gold rush and the silent film era. As a film buff I was impressed by the story telling that included photos, film footage of that era and the film that was recovered in Dawson City. The music score blended perfectly with the story telling. This film has "Best Documentary" Oscar written all over it.