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Optimism
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Dawson City, a snow-covered site in Canada’s far north Yukon Territory, has already had its past immortalised in Bill Morrison’s archival project Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016). Deborah Stratman brings us up to date, in a style more impressionistic than Morrison, on the adventures of this strange community that dwells in almost impossible climactic conditions, but runs on a spirit of nutty optimism. Entertainments of sport and music-hall, works created with fire and lead – all carry this spirit. And we see the lot within 15 minutes. Mixing different grains and textures of footage, weaving a soundtrack from snatched conversations and nature’s noises, Stratman even manages to stumble upon an endearingly folksy new allegory for cinema itself: as the mirror that (as in Dawson City) shines a bit of sunshine into the otherwise blistering cold. © Adrian Martin 15 September 2018 |
