{"id":288,"date":"2013-03-25T16:10:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T16:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acitytraced.net\/?p=288"},"modified":"2013-03-25T16:29:18","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T16:29:18","slug":"the-baroness-in-the-adirondacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acitytraced.net\/?p=288","title":{"rendered":"The Baroness in the Adirondacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, we were asked to participate in an ambitious project conceived and directed by the amazing minds of Cassandra Guan<\/a> and Lily Benson<\/a>. I’ll let their description explain the project:<\/p>\n

The Filmballad of MAMADADA is an experimental, feminist biodrama about the marginalized Dadaist, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Its content has been produced collaboratively by an international group of filmmakers and artists. Participants undertook to interpret and adapt fragments from Freytag-Loringhoven\u2019s biography, working in piecemeal fashion toward a collective narrative. The resulting compilation (a total of 49 passages) is being edited into a feature-length film, its representation of history fractured through a shifting series of authorial lenses. This unconventional process of production can be imagined as a game of exquisite corpse unfolding in time, giving shape to an intricate web of desires and fears surrounding identity politics today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We were charged with a portion of the year 1923: Elsa has returned to Berlin penniless, cold, with only an unfurnished apartment. Inspired, we decided to portray Elsa’s outer landscape as a reflection of her inner landscape. This January of 2013, we shot our scene lakeside in the January subzero Adirondacks, near the town of Old Forge. MaryAnn Nelson<\/a>, an extremely talented local actress, was our Baroness.<\/p>\n

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MaryAnn Nelson<\/p><\/div>\n

A lake dock is transformed from a dormant memory of summer to a confined room.<\/p>\n

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Prudence demonstrating the proper use of safety goggles<\/p><\/div>\n

Does the window allow her to look out or look in?<\/p>\n

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MaryAnn Nelson and William<\/p><\/div>\n

Cassandra Guan recently cut a trailer for “The Filmballad of MAMADADA.” Excerpts from our sequence are seen in the cut before and after the title card, and in the very last cut.<\/p>\n