The Film of Her (Bill Morrison, 1996)

“...Morrison’s THE FILM OF HER is based on the story of a Library of Congress clerk who saved a vaultful of paper reels, documenting the earliest days of cinema, from the incinerator. A gorgeous tribute to the art form’s origins, this 12-minute short is anchored by the memory of this man, who has fixed in his mind since boyhood the image of a woman he saw in an early porn film. ’The film of her’ is what drives the clerk to save the films, this collective memory, and it also serves as the focal point for Morrison’s thoughts on personal experience and the happenstance of history. Drawing comparisons between the primordial ooze and the elemental flicker of a light projector, or between Lumière babies, magic á la Méliès, and the gears of industry, Morrison reminds us that even the most brilliant and brave creations begin as cherished ideas nurtured in dedicated imaginations and subjected to the whims of chance.“ - Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, L.A. Weekly essay on this film: