Saturday, October 22, 2022, 8:00 pm
DIEHL’s MISDIRECTIONS
Our Supernatural Suite opens with a mind-melting carnival ride, through both a rich legacy of the American circus subculture, and through the particular sideshow art of the sleight-of-hand magician. We celebrate the SF launch of Carl Diehl‘s utterly genius zine about his great-uncle Werner “Dorny” Dornfield. Carl sends in a custom video cut that draws from the chapbook itself, delving into Dorny‘s association with Harry Houdini, as well as a series of conversations with historians, performance artists, and magicians. ALSO: jaw-dropping contortionist footage, Kathleen Quillian‘s animation The Conjuror, and Craig Baldwin‘s live magic trick! As to the broader cultural phenomenon of the circus in the US, well, we DO have the very best material in the form of a 1949 16mm Technicolor, Circus Train. PLUS: vérité footage of the marvelous Bicentennial circus, also in luscious color. AND an excerpt from the recent miracle acquisition, Soviet Circus (if you can believe that!). *$8.88