2009
HD video, 16:9, 13 min
English and German with English subtitles
installation: 11 flats with mounted film still prints, 400 x 400 x 250 cm, 3 custom-made stools
Part I of a trilogy (part II »A Crime must be Committed«, part III »Home Time Show Time«)
»Dad Dracula is Dead« is the first instalment of a three-part video project that refers to certain stereotypes of character presentation in European and US film and TV history. It looks back to the cinema of the twenties and thirties, a time of transition not only from silent film to talkies but also for an increasingly regimented film industry. Although censorship codes were relaxed after World War I, there was a concurrent tendency to establish new control structures (such as the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930) to accompany the birth of film as a mass medium. Dialogue from the movies of the time, including Different from the Others, The Soilers, Girls in Uniform, Queen Christina, Sylvia Scarlett and Dracula’s Daughter’ is repeated in Dad Dracula is Dead, performing a loop within this history. The characters from the films adopt the prevailing norms of living in that society, visible through their connections to and dependencies on each other. When amateur actresses and actors apply the effort that it takes to perform another identity and repeat these conventions, the act of appropriation is kept visible. This re-enactment of ways of living makes any obvious separation between the natural and the staged difficult. The norm has to be repeated, in order to be achieved.
crew
written, edited & directed by // Rebecca Ann Tess
assistant director // Helena Schlichting, Julia Jung
cinematography // Bernd Thiele
camera assistant, light design // Yehonatan Richter-Levin
sound recording // Holger Priedemuth
sound mastering // Klangkantine (Christoph Kling, Johannes Schwenk) with Tobi Goll
set design // Rebecca Ann Tess
script editors // Iori Wallace, Richard Schmising
translation // Darja Klingenberg, Iori Wallace
dialect coach // Iori Wallace
still photography // Nadine Fraczkowski with Flo Maak, Helena Schlichting, Iori Wallace
makeup design // Eva Ziegler, Dany Abig
costumes // actresses and actors’ own
catering // Martin Walk, Christina Stokhofe, Flo Maak, Tanja Kämper
produced by // R. J. Hauser
cast
Boris Zdravkovski as // Paul Körner, Michael Fane, Don Antonio de Prado, Policeman 2
Christina Stockhofe as // Manuela
Flo Maak as // Teacher, Blackmailer, Cowboy, Queen Christina, Jeffrey Garth
Julia Jung as // Else Sivers, Frl. von Bernburg, Countess Marya Zaleska, Chancellor
Tanja Kämper as // Kurt Sivers, Sylvia/Sylvester, Max, Policeman 1, Ise von Westhagen
Helena Schlichting, Holger Priedemuth, Iori Wallace, Yehonatan Richter-Levin, Katrin Einert, Martin Walk, Nadine Fraczkowski as // Audience
Samuel Forsythe as Voice-over
Includes dialogue from:
»Anders als die Anderen« (1919), »The Soilers« (1923), »Mädchen in Uniform« (1931), »Queen Christina« (1933), »Sylvia Scarlett« (1935) and »Dracula’s Daughter« (1936) Includes quotes from »Vampires and Violets« by Andrea Weiss (1992) and »The Celluloid Closet« by Vito Russo (1981).
