Bill Morrison Discusses His Oscar-Nominated Short Incident and the Systemic Issues within Policing

      At the start of my review of The Village Detective: A Song Cycle, I mentioned, “It is difficult to emphasize enough the significance of Bill Morrison’s contributions to the language and history of cinema.” That was almost four years ago, and those words hold just as much weight today, if not more. Morrison, whose work we've previously supported on The Film Stage, received his first Academy Award nomination just last month for his vital short film Incident. We spoke with him for about thirty minutes about the nomination, the film itself, the project's origins, its overall structure, and “how we perceive memory over time as a collection of images.”

      This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Listen to the full conversation below.

      **The Film Stage:** How has it been for you?

      **Bill Morrison:** Wow, it’s been quite overwhelming. This is a truly hectic time. As you know, I create rather niche films, and it seems like every six or seven years someone asks me a few questions about them, but this level of attention is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

      How did you learn about the Oscar nomination?

      Oh, they inform you ahead of time about when the announcements will be made.

      Were you watching it live?

      I was. I woke up early; it was 5:30 AM in L.A., and I was in Chicago with my mom. We were holding hands, and when they announced my film, we squeezed each other’s hands. My sister Ellen was there too. It all happened quite fast, so it took a moment for everyone to grasp what had just happened. Given the morbid and serious nature of the story, there wasn’t much jumping up and down, but I felt a profound relief since a lot was at stake for me at this point.

      Each year, particularly with the wildfires in L.A. and various other issues, there’s a discussion about “what’s the purpose of the Oscars?” Incident demonstrates just why: it provides a platform that encourages many more people to seek out your film.

      I mean, look: we can’t rely on news sources for information anymore, so it's up to artists and journalists to share these stories.

      We discussed Dawson City: Frozen Time, released in 2016, right? And that didn't make the Oscar shortlist?

      No, I think I was a bit naive regarding what it would take for that. It did qualify, of course, and was shown in theaters, but I didn’t pursue a campaign, nor did the distributor. Some prominent critics certainly praised it, but I’m not sure it captured the wider interest of the documentary branch. It lacked a strong social issue, which seems to be…

      **In vogue right now.**

      Indeed. Interestingly, the Academy rewards technical skill across the board, but within documentaries, it seems to lean more towards issue-driven content.

      Your approach to form is quite captivating, even in Incident. It's fantastic that it received a nomination, but I rewatched it recently—it’s thirty minutes long and available on the New Yorker—hoping many will view it. For those who haven't seen it, what does it capture?

      It’s a film entirely made up of source material from police surveillance and private closed-circuit television footage. So, it’s all surveillance camera footage without any talking heads, narrator, or music. Through this, we can reveal a police murder and a misleading alibi. It was claimed to be defensive, but the officer involved lies, asserting that the victim drew a gun on him and that he shot in self-defense, while the footage clearly contradicts that. The film explores the unraveling of a narrative that starts from a faltering lie and manifests into an official police narrative about the events, with the judgment reflecting that. It offers a unique perspective on publicly available footage.

      I’d say the police and the city of Chicago attempted to present it in a certain way, asserting, “There’s nothing to investigate here. Let’s bury it among the vast collection of oversight footage and ignore it.” However, my collaborator and the film's producer, Jamie Kalven, insisted, “Perhaps there’s more to discover here.” He has successfully done that in earlier cases and managed to uncover a wealth of footage for this project. I don't think any police department has released as much footage related to a police killing as we had available. I used that to create this film.

      Officer Dillan Halley is the one who shot “Snoop” Augustus. He misstates what happened immediately afterward, catches himself, but doesn’t correct it. In that four-minute span, you witness the reactions of his partner, the female officer (PPO Megan Fleming), and the public's quick realization of what transpired. That sequence is intense. You’re using multiple angles like Mike Figgis in Timecode. It’s a challenge. As you're editing, you are weighing how much information to share with the audience. What were the discussions like regarding what to show