Carl Diehl
Where do ideas come from—- out of thin air, as if by magic? Or is it in the choreography, the behind-the-scenes, the work with the sleights at hand to generate creative solutions from percieved restrictions?
PAINLESS MAGIC (2025)
Carl Diehl's kaleidoscopic account of creativity, camaraderie, and curiosity begins with the life and times of the late, great magician, vaudevillian, & comedy emcee, Werner “Dorny” Dornfield (1892 -1982), then splinters prismatically into a mosaic of riddles and revelations about artist-led initiatives elsewhen & elsewhere!
Painless Magic is a 65 minute documentary that shimmers with ephemera from the Golden Age of stage magic and beyond, and intrigues with anecdotes from magicians, historians, & Dorny’s oldest surviving relatives. But that's not all! Misdirection abounds as insights from experimental filmmakers, musicians, performance artists, and philosophers reveal suggestive correspondences across contexts of art, magic, and everyday life!
UPCOMING SCREENINGS 2025
MAR 05: DECAY, Olympia, WA
MAR 17: Boathouse Microcinema, Portland, OR
MAY 14: Elastic Arts, w/ Omnia Sol, Chicago, IL
JUN 18: Templeton Building, Portland, OR
AUG 28: Salt City Market, Syracuse, NY
SEP 15: Interzone, Corvallis, OR
OCT 16: Brewvies Cinema Pub, Salt Lake City, UT
3 MINUTE SNEAK PEEK from PAINLESS MAGIC
MISDIRECTIONS: VIDEO VIGNETTES (2023-2024)
an initial series of short form video vignettes through which Carl Diehl conjured up audiovisual adaptations of his research and writing from Misdirections (see below) These short works have screened nationally and internationally at festivals and events including the Portland Diary Summit, Other Cinema, The HISTORY International Film Festival, and Micro Acts UK, and have since been reworked and incorporated into Painless Magic
MISDIRECTIONS! A SERIO-COMIC CATALOGUE (2022)
Drawing together archival images, original animations, videos, interviews, and live narration adapted from the book, Misdirections! is a live cinema performance-lecture par excellance! Paired with a variety program of cine-magical feats, recent showcases have included videos, films, and performances by: Bill Boyer, Stephanie Hough, Andrew Kim, Kerry Laitala, Aaron O'Neal, Kathleen Quillian, Jeremy Rourke, Cindy Webster, Weird Faction, and others
EXHIBITION RECORD
NOV 2022: PNCA, Portland, OR
OCT 2022: Other Cinema, San Francisco, CA
MAY 2022: Shapeshifters Cinema, Oakland, CA
MAY 2022: Turn! Turn! Turn!, Portland, OR
MISDIRECTIONS: A SERIO-COMIC CATALOGUE OF DETAILS, DETOURS, & DERIVATIONS FROM THE LIFE OF THE MAGICIAN, VAUDEVILLIAN, & COMEDY EMCEE, WERNER "DORNY" DORNFIELD (2022)
What begins as a biography of the magician, Werner "Dorny" Dornfield, broadens into a mosaic of many riddles and revelations. Misdirections is a 68 page chapbook, printed with embedded clues that correspond with an affiliated web-based audiovisual trove. Following clues from the book, attentive readers can unlock further anecdotes, images, and vignettes, including original animations by Portland illustrator, Bill Boyer
Order your copy from Antiquated Future
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