Magnetic Sleep Episode #1

Magnetic Sleep is a black and white, elliptical narrative about a woman hypnotist, looking at issues of power and ambivalence, presented in a series of self-contained segments or episodes. Magnetic Sleep draws on the tradition of early film melodramas, but using a formal approach more related to early experimental filmmakers Man Ray, Maya Deren, and Watson and Weber. In this atmospheric and mesmerizing work, Geiser integrates performers, collage animation, abstraction, rephotography, and painted elements to create a pictographic, allusive narrative about a woman hypnotist. Magnetic Sleep was a term used in the 19th century for what is now called hypnosis, and refers back to Mesmer and his magnetically/electrically induced trances. Magnetic Sleep centers around the figure of the woman hypnotist, and follows her through an ever shifting landscape of desire, confusion, and loss. Magnetic Sleep Episode 1 is an introduction to the film, both in terms of film vocabulary and character. While the film’s form is circular and elliptical, there are narrative elements. In summary, the hypnotist Marceline (New York performance artist Salley May) is departing yet another town, her destination unknown. She is also leaving Henry, the man she loves (New York Singer/Performer/Choreographer John Kelly), who she hypnotizes to forget her (in the final episode). Her departure also brings back the memory of her arrival in the village, and the fatigue she feels after years of wandering.Additional performers this episode: Allain Rochelle, Andrea LeBlanc, Maggie Lee, and Alexandra Geiser.Magnetic Sleep was funded, in part, through grants from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Jerome Foundation, and a commission from the Montalvo Arts Center.