Dawson City: Frozen Time

Released Jun 9, 2017

2h 0m

Documentary

List

100%

Tomatometer

62 Reviews

70%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

In 1978 Canada, a bulldozer digs up a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s.

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Critics Consensus

Dawson City: Frozen Time takes a patient look at the past through long-lost film footage that reveals much more than glimpses at life through the camera's lens.

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Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

We come away with a contemplative suspicion that we're all participating in something, and even if we don't ever get to see the big picture, there probably is one and it might even make sense.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 12, 2017

Full Review

Owen Gleiberman

Variety

The true magic that "Dawson City" captures is, simply, the mystery of film itself: a medium that turned people into shadows that burned brighter than life.

Jun 28, 2017

Full Review

Leonard Maltin

leonardmaltin.com

This film tells two stories, both fascinating. Morrison's purposeful editing and story sense make Frozen Time a mesmerizing tale

Jun 15, 2017

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Wael Khairy

The Cinephile Fix

Like the buried gold and the lost films, “Dawson City: Frozen Time” is a treasure waiting to be discovered.

Oct 14, 2022

Full Review

Luis Fernando Galván

En Filme

What filmmaker Bill Morrison manages to do with the footage is simply magical. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 4/5

Dec 28, 2020

Full Review

Chris Plante

Polygon

Without voice over, you see footage from these once-lost-films not as documentary materials, but as films, the way people in the turn of century saw them. They're beautiful and alive.

Aug 4, 2020

Full Review

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Haley F

What an incredible historical and cultural find! The story is engaging and the footage is astonishing. My only qualms with the film was the music - There was very little dialogue so the music carried a solid 85% of the film. Which is fine but it needed to be more cohesive and complimentary and I found myself focusing on it too often.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/09/24

Full Review

Georgan G

3 & 1/2 stars. Interesting from the point of cinematic history. Really enjoyed the bits of very old movies. However, the subtitles were tiny & quickly gone which made keeping up impossible. Should have been narration so the viewer could just watch the film.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/02/23

Full Review

William L

Absolutely an excellent piece of research, weaving together a narrative that makes able use of the rich archive of films that constitute the Dawson City Find, but as with many documentateries about brief interesting events that can't sustain a feature length it wanders terribly to pad for time. Records of the 1919 World Series and a protracted history of Dawson are barely even related to the film archive, which tries to portray the cinema content in the context of a growing America but just ends up feeling unfocused and often boring. There is very little narration and the narrative is presented through subtitles exclusively, supported by a soundtrack that some call hypnotic but seems more like white noise after a while without interruption, like some sort of screeching whale ghosts. You can tell there was real effort that went into chronicling the backstory, combing images of the town alongside historical records to pin precise events to period visuals and using clips of recovered film for emphasis, but unfortunately the end product is more academic than entertaining. As a lover of film, history, and documentaries independently, I really wanted to like this one, but couldn't find a way to do so beyond technical appreciation. (2.5/5)

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

04/05/21

Full Review

Audience Member

A documentary that tries to do just a little too much. The story itself is fascinating â" the discovery in 1978 of a trove of lost silent films preserved in the permafrost of Dawson City, Canada. To me, the â~star of the showâ(TM) 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 1910â(TM)s and 1920â(TM)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 Dawsonâ(TM)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 heâ(TM)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.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

S R

1001 movies to see before you die (1203. Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) - Added 2018; Removed 2019). Unlike anything I have ever seen. Haunting and revealing.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

great idea, fantastic scope but the overindulgence of the director results in a severe mismatch between the expectations of the audience and the director's end causing many to helplessly flail as the movie persists beyond the one and a half hour mark after which every "new" point of information is a sad ghost of what has already been presented.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

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Bill Morrison

Director

Michael Phenicie

Actor

Kathy Jones-Gates

Actor

Bill Morrison

Writer

Bill Morrison

Producer

Madeleine Molyneaux

Producer

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Synopsis

In 1978 Canada, a bulldozer digs up a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s.

Director: Bill Morrison
Screenwriter: Bill Morrison
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Production Co: Picture Palace Pictures, Hypnotic Pictures
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 9, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 3, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $130.3K
Runtime: 2h 0m

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