Filmmaking 1o1
Type
Residency, School & Class, Other
Category
Film, Video
Status
Open for Applications
Deadline
June 1, 2025
Application Fee
Free
Host
ARTS LETTERS & NUMBERS
Location
New York, United States
About Program:
In this one-week intensive, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bill Morrison will guide a maximum of 10 students through the creation of short personal films, beginning with capturing their experiences in Craft 101 through first-person point-of-view filming using their smartphones. Participants will then work directly with Morrison to edit these into 5–7 minute pieces, highlighting the diverse perspectives within the program. The workshop offers a hands-on introduction to Morrison’s unique storytelling and editing process, culminating in a public screening of the students’ completed works. Participants should have a basic working knowledge of editing software that is already installed on their personal laptops. The workshop assumes familiarity with importing, cutting, and exporting footage. ALN will provide review and screening spaces, but no additional studio facilities or equipment.
About Program Director:
Bill Morrison‘s films often combine archival film material set to contemporary music. He has collaborated with some of the most influential composers of our time, including John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, Dave Douglas, Richard Einhorn, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gørecki, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich, among many others.
“Decasia” (67 min, 2002), a collaboration with the composer Michael Gordon, was selected to the US Library of Congress’ 2013 National Film Registry, becoming the most modern film named to the list that preserves works of “great cultural, historic or aesthetic significance to the nation’s cinematic heritage.” Morrison's films are also in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and the EYE Film Institute. He is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Alpert Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Grant, Creative Capital, and a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His theatrical projection design has been recognized with two Bessie awards and an Obie Award.
In 2013, Morrison was honored with retrospective programs in four different countries: the Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis; the Vila Do Conde Short Film Festival, Portugal; the Adelaide Film Festival, Australia; and the Aarhus Film Festival, Denmark. In 2014 The Great Flood opened theatrically in the US and was released on DVD by Icarus Films. The Miners’ Hymns was screened with live musical performances as part of a seven-city tour of the US, Amsterdam, and the UK, produced by Forma Arts & Media. In 2021, Morrison became a member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His most recent feature-length doc, The Village Detective: a song cycle (2021), was released theatrically by Kino Lorber in September 2021. In 2025, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for his film, Incident (2024).
In this one-week intensive, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bill Morrison will guide a maximum of 10 students through the creation of short personal films, beginning with capturing their experiences in Craft 101 through first-person point-of-view filming using their smartphones. Participants will then work directly with Morrison to edit these into 5–7 minute pieces, highlighting the diverse perspectives within the program. The workshop offers a hands-on introduction to Morrison’s unique storytelling and editing process, culminating in a public screening of the students’ completed works. Participants should have a basic working knowledge of editing software that is already installed on their personal laptops. The workshop assumes familiarity with importing, cutting, and exporting footage. ALN will provide review and screening spaces, but no additional studio facilities or equipment.
About Program Director:
Bill Morrison‘s films often combine archival film material set to contemporary music. He has collaborated with some of the most influential composers of our time, including John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, Dave Douglas, Richard Einhorn, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gørecki, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich, among many others.
“Decasia” (67 min, 2002), a collaboration with the composer Michael Gordon, was selected to the US Library of Congress’ 2013 National Film Registry, becoming the most modern film named to the list that preserves works of “great cultural, historic or aesthetic significance to the nation’s cinematic heritage.” Morrison's films are also in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and the EYE Film Institute. He is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Alpert Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Grant, Creative Capital, and a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His theatrical projection design has been recognized with two Bessie awards and an Obie Award.
In 2013, Morrison was honored with retrospective programs in four different countries: the Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis; the Vila Do Conde Short Film Festival, Portugal; the Adelaide Film Festival, Australia; and the Aarhus Film Festival, Denmark. In 2014 The Great Flood opened theatrically in the US and was released on DVD by Icarus Films. The Miners’ Hymns was screened with live musical performances as part of a seven-city tour of the US, Amsterdam, and the UK, produced by Forma Arts & Media. In 2021, Morrison became a member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His most recent feature-length doc, The Village Detective: a song cycle (2021), was released theatrically by Kino Lorber in September 2021. In 2025, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for his film, Incident (2024).