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RadioWest and Utah Film Center have partnered to present the best in documentary filmmaking. We talk with established and new directors who are changing the way audiences see the world and then screen their films.

Through the Lens: Dawson City

Filmmaker Bill Morrison's latest film has very few words or talking heads. It's mostly made of clips from silent movies buried for decades beneath a swimming pool in the Canadian Yukon. 

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NOTE: A previous version of the podcast mistakenly noted that the screening of Dawson City on January 16 would take place at the Downtown Salt Lake City Library. It will in fact be at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. More details below. We reget the error.

Bill Morrison isn’t your typical filmmaker. He doesn’t rely on stuff like actors, sets, or scripts. He uses found and archival footage and still images to craft haunting cinematic mosaics. His latest film, Dawson City, is built from a trove of some 500 films from the 1910s and 20s. The film prints were found buried beneath a swimming pool in the Yukon Territory town of Dawson City. Morrison joins us Tuesday to talk about his unique approach to cinema and the bizarre history that made his new film possible.

On Tuesday, January 16th, RadioWest and the Utah Film Center will present a free screening of Bill Morrison's film Dawson City: Frozen Time as part of our Through the Lens series. It's at 7:00 p.m. at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Morrison will join us in-person for a Q-and-A after the film. You can get more information, and invite your friends, through our Facebook event.

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.