So did the Donners. December the 1st, Tuesday. Donald L. Hardesty 1. Narrator: The Donner Party limped down the Humboldt as fast as it could go. They were racing against time and the weather, desperate to get over the mountains and into California before snow blocked the heights. James Clyman (Actor, voice-over): Mr. Hastings, our pilot, is looking for some force from the states with which it is designed to revolutionize California. [31] Chris Petit complimented its "edge-of-hysteria relentlessness, the anti-narrative drive", and the simple concept, commenting that he wished he had thought of the idea himself. Monday, November the 30th. It seemed impossible for the oxen to pull them up the steep hill and the bluffs beyond, but we double-teamed and the work was at last accomplished. Finally, we concluded we would go or die trying, for not to make any attempt to save them would be a disgrace to us and California as long as time lasted. I have not wrote you half of the trouble we’ve had, but I have wrote you enough to let you know what trouble is. On October 7th, Lewis Keseberg turned an aging Belgian emigrant named Hardkoop out of his wagon. Edwin Bryant (Actor, voice-over): Not a living or a moving object of any kind appears upon the face of the vast expanse. The journey began in 1846, three years before the Gold Rush, as part of the large tide of American emigration that was just beginning to settle in the Mexican province of Upper California. There was no time to waste. “We camped with them,” Clyman remembered, “and continued the conversation until a late hour.” Reed, anxious to make up for lost time, asked Clyman what he thought of Hastings’s new route. Then on August 6th, at the bottom of Echo Canyon, the party came to a halt. The wind picked up. Geoffrey Ward, Consultants  "[42] In 2005 Étienne Chambaud presented L'Horloge, a piece of software that displays the time using images of clocks in films. I would go as far as I could, let the consequences be what they might. The 10 surviving members of the “forlorn hope” butchered what remained of their four dead friends, wrapped and carefully labeled the pieces so that no one had to eat their kin, and staggered on through the wilderness, cursing Lansford Hastings. It is distressing. “Wanderer” Narrator: No one had the heart to kill him. James Reed (Actor, voice-over): Among the cabins lay the fleshless bones and half-eaten bodies of the victims of the famine. James Reed never spoke in public of the killing of John Snyder. You shall hear from me as soon as I have an opportunity. On October 16th, the battered party finally reached the Truckee, the narrow, rushing river that served as gateway to the Sierra. The rest of the party hurried on towards the summit. Husbands bowed their heads, appalled at the situation of their families. Girardet wanted to show how interchangeable the cinema footage could be. The slips of paper were prepared and Patrick Dolan drew the fatal slip. Time and again the hostile terrain brought them to a standstill while the men cursed and toiled and hacked a road through the dense undergrowth. Vanessa Ezersky  Indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, I shall say the trouble is all in getting started. Two still in the mountains. Courtesy of Polygram Music and MCA Music, Additional Pre-Recorded Music The Breens and their seven children took over an abandoned shack not far from Truckee Lake. Gene Jones In the heat of the day, the moisture under the surface bubbles to the top, turns it into a gumbo. We had to stay in the California mountains all winter without Pa. We had not the first thing to eat. National Frontier Trails Center Ma! The Reeds’ palace wagon had to be laboriously double-teamed over even moderate inclines, to the immense irritation of those forced to crawl along behind. John Breen (Actor, voice-over): The weather was already very cold and the heavy clouds hanging over the mountains to the west were strong indications of an approaching winter. May 11th, 1846. The temperature dropped and the snow and sleet came lashing down. I cannot describe the death-like look of them. Then the suggestion was made that lots be cast and whoever drew the longest slip should be the sacrifice. The Donners didn’t come and up on the summit during the night, it began to snow. It is estimated that 700 miles will take us to Captain Sutter’s fort, which we hope to make in seven weeks from this day. It was the parting of the ways. Using archival photographs, paintings, and maps; diaries, letters and memoirs of the party members; interviews with writers and historians; and new cinematography from across the Oregon and California trails, The Donner Party traces the emigrants’ 2500-mile journey from Springfield, Illinois to Sutter’s Fort in California. [32] In The New York Review of Books, Zadie Smith stated that The Clock "is neither bad nor good, but sublime, maybe the greatest film you have ever seen". We will bury him in the snow. Harold Schindler, Writer: Clyman, who had just been south of the lake on horseback coming east with Lansford Hastings, says, “Don’t do it. The wagons could not go. [18] The work owned by the New York collectors Jill and Peter Kraus, is a promised gift to the Museum of Modern Art. The story of the Donner disaster quickly spread across the country. Wagons would have to be abandoned, the Reeds’ “pioneer palace car” among them. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Marclay developed the idea for The Clock while working on his 2005 piece Screen Play. [1] From 9 a.m. to noon, they eat breakfast and have wake-up sex. It had been one year almost to the day since the Donners and the Reeds had left their homes in Springfield, Illinois. He said every step he took he was getting nigher Pa and something to eat. Richard Rhoads It had been a disaster. Tamsen Donner (Actress, voice-over): Independence. It took six days alone to chop their way eight miles up Big Mountain. The Indians knew we were doomed and one of them wrapped his blanket about him and stood all night under a tree. As if to render the situation more terrible, a storm came on during the night and the hilltops became white with snow. It stated that the road ahead was virtually impassable and advised them to wait until he could show them a better way. She would not let her husband die alone. [29], When he started to make The Clock, Marclay expected that copyright would not be a substantial obstacle, theorizing that "If you make something good and interesting and not ridiculing someone or being offensive, the creators of the original material will like it. Sad news. Eliza Donner (Actress, voice-over): After the first storm, a little sunbeam stole down the steps and made a bright spot upon our floor. We went out to the pass, the snow so deep we were unable to find the road, then turned back to the shanty on the lake. Narrator: That night they camped 1,000 feet beneath the dark, granite summit, waiting anxiously for the Donner wagons to catch up, praying that the weather would hold. Amy Madigan When he did, the promoter refused to come back to lead the company himself, pointing out what he thought might be a more manageable route from a high peak, instead. In 1842, he wandered west to California. Virginia Reed (Actress, voice-over): Despair drove many nearly frantic. The Huntington Library Narrator: They crawled along, making scarcely two miles a day, fighting their way through a chaos of canyons choked with willow trees, cottonwoods and aspen. The scene that I saw that morning seems to be photographed on my mind. To make this theme more explicit, Marclay included symbols of time and death in connecting shots. Most of the emigrants heeded James Clyman’s warning and turned right, but 20 wagons, including the nine belonging to the Donners and the Reeds, turned left towards Fort Bridger and the entrance to Hastings’s cutoff. 48 still clung to life, but some had gone mad and others were too far gone to be revived. [39][41] His 2002 installation Video Quartet is a 13-minute video with four continuous screens of clips from commercial films. My dearest only sister: I can give you no idea of the hurry of this place at this time. Peggy very uneasy for fear we shall all perish with hunger. It is barely possible to get through if you follow it and it may be impossible if you don’t. [24], The Clock has been viewed as an extension of similar compilations, particularly by Christoph Girardet. I am fearful the snow is too deep for the last company of emigrants to cross the mountains. So far, none of the survivors at the lake had been forced to eat human flesh. Mrs. Graves’s body was lying there with almost all the flesh cut away from her arms and limbs. Eliza Donner (Actress, voice-over): Even the wind seemed to hold its breath as the suggestion was made that were one to die, the rest might live. Virginia Reed (Actress, voice-over): Papa carried Thomas and all the rest of us walked. Three days later there was again nothing left to eat. Sean Cleary . Narrator: When she heard her husband’s voice, Margaret Reed stumbled in the snow and almost fainted. Wagons bogged to the hubs, drivers cursed and whipped the straining oxen. Some cursed Hastings for the false statements in his open letter and for his broken pledge at Fort Bridger. Somehow, Margaret Reed had managed to keep all her children alive. And then we saw a woman emerge from a hole in the snow. [42] Girardet's 2003 work 60 Seconds (analog) is a 60-second film intended to be played on a loop. We raised a loud hello. The scenes enacted in the mountains during those two months would never be forgotten. She can get a Spaniard anytime. On the sixth day their food ran out. All four adults and four of the children died. [4][28] Marclay included shots of turntables and vinyl records not only as a representation of "capturing time, trying to hold it back", but also as a self-reference to his earlier works that used vinyl. Glenn Fukushima They found Lewis Keseberg in his cabin, delirious, surrounded by the half-eaten dead. The next day, the new party met to elect a captain. 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