Magnetic Sleep, Episode 1, 2008
16mm Film still
Magnetic Sleep
(2008)
Digital video, from 16mm reversal
Black and white
A film in 9 episodes
Magnetic Sleep is a black and white, elliptical narrative, presented in a series of 9 self-contained segments or episodes. Drawing on the tradition of early film melodramas, but using a formal approach more related to American expressionists Watson and Weber, 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.
The length of each episode varies from 4 to 9 minutes, with the full 9 episodes running just under an hour.
