Release
(13 min, b/w, HDCam/Blu-Ray, 1:2.67 letterbox, 2010)
On March 17, 1930, a crowd assembled outside Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary in hopes of witnessing Al Capone's release from prison. (He in fact had already been released the night before.) Filmmaker Bill Morrison and composer Vijay Iyer turn a single panning shot of that scene and its accompanying audio track into a split-screen surround sound panoramic film that continually doubles back on itself, creating a 13-minute trance on the nature of spectacle and spectatorship.
Credits:
Directed and edited by Bill Morrison
Sound design by Vijay Iyer
Produced by Julie Courtney for Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site
Original cinematography by Jack Painter (March 17, 1930)
Original sound recording by Addison Tice (March 17, 1930)
Source material by arrangement with University of South Carolina Newsfilm Library
Telecine by Colorlab
Funding:
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.
with additional support from:
National Endowment for the Arts
Berwind Fund
Carole Haas Gravagno
The Barra Foundation
Screenings:
• World premiere: Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Philadelphia, PA
March 2010 – November 2011, (installation in cell next to Capone’s)
• San Francisco International Film Festival, CA, April 2010
Award: Golden Gate Award Winner, New Visions, Short
• Tribeca Film Festival, New York, NY, April 2010
• Sydney Film Festival, Australia, June 2010
• Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Montréal, QC, Canada, October 2010
• Jihlava IDFF, Czech Republic, October 2010