Powder Placenta

In his poem Epirrhema, Goethe calls to his readers, Attend to this in contemplating nature // Always, in each and every feature: // Nothing is inside, nothing is outside; // For what’s within, is without. Thereby grasp without delay // Holy secret clear as day.

And so it is with the fairy tale Powder Placenta by Katrina Daschner, part three in a series of nine self-contained works adapted for the screen from Schnitzler’s Dream Novella.
For a number of years, fairy tales counted among the most popular genres in Early Cinema. Costume spectacles full of dance and wizardry told of vengeful butterflies and cunning gnomes conjuring like mad using the skeletons of sorcerers. These visions celebrated fantasy, sensuality and desire. They were able to shake up traditional social categories and hierarchies, such as art, and turn them upside down.

Powder Placenta is a fairytale that narrates the interconnectedness of seemingly separate spaces, spheres and strata, and shows how they desire to be intertwined. We see Baroque wall paintings in Lower Austria’s Harmannsdorf castle; forests and river meadows through which a pack of wolves wander; and Daschner´s theatrical stage peopled by alternately confused or enchanted mythical creatures, a richly fertile and iridescent world where all shapes are round and the juice of life burbles and flows freely. Once again and at long last, everything becomes one, no matter how it is normally categorized: artificial or real, two- or three-dimensional, fantasy or reality. This is achieved through the montage, inspired by a vision of life that allows all things to merge together. Longing has come to an end, the celebration of life in all its glory has begun.
(Olaf Möller)

Translation. Eve Heller

Orig. Title
Powder Placenta
Year
2015
Country
Austria
Duration
9 min
Director
Katrina Daschner
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
Credits
Director
Katrina Daschner
Script
Katrina Daschner
Cinematography
Hannes Böck
Editing
Katrina Daschner, Hannes Böck
Soundmix
Oliver Stotz
Production
Lady Chutney
Actor/Actress
Stefanie Sourial, Hyo Lee, Sushila Mesquita, Cordula Thym, Gisi Håkanson
Executive Producer
Alexia Stuefer
Art Direction
Jenny Schleif, Diego R. Ortiz
Lighting
Hannes Böck
Costumes
Markus Hausleitner
Make-Up
Kali Edri, Denise Kottlett, Sunanda Mesquita
Executive Producer
Denice Bourbon, Katrina Daschner, Nick Prokesch
Assistant Director
Nick Prokesch
Supported by
Otto Mauer Fonds, Niederösterreich Kultur, bm:ukk
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Festivals (Selection)
2015
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Oberhausen - Int. Kurzfilmtage
Wroclaw - New Horizons Festival
Lissabon - Queerlisboa Lesbian & Gay Festival
Victoria - Antimatter Underground Film Festival
New York MIX-NY, Queer Film Festival
2016
Malmö - Queer Film Festival
Regina - Queer City Cinema Media Arts Festival