“Irma Vep, the last breath” is a multichannel video project based on Musidora, the French silent film actress, and the character she is best known for, Irma Vep from the film Les Vampires (dir. Louis Feuillade 1915)

Clip #1

THIS IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS.
It’s a piece about living in the shadows, criminal anxiety and the relationship between the artist and her creation, both fictional and real. Irma Vep and Musidora are played by Zackary Drucker and Mother Flawless Sabrina, two artists who have developed a relationship that transgresses the border of art and life, obliterating social expectations while documenting a cultural evolution of gender. This project mirrors their relationship with that of Musidora and Irma Vep, taking up motifs from the silent movie such as gazes, affected body language and the figure of the masked woman. Shot on a starkly illuminated set that makes space for anxious projections of desire and knowledge on the void that is Irma Vep – a space between the genders, between vamps of the silent era and the contemporary queer – ‘Irma Vep, the last breath” smashes the shiny veneer of artifice to reveal dark, subconscious layers of identity.

CREDITS:
Director: Michelle Handelman
Cinematograper: Edward David
Performers: Zackary Drucker, Mother Flawless Sabrina
Dancers: A.K. Burns, Tori Sparks, Marti Domination
Choreography: Tori Sparks
Costumes: Garo Sparo, threeASFOUR
Makeup: Michael Gwaltney

MADE WITH SUPPORT OF JOHN SIMON GUGGENHEIM MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP