Elena Pachner Sarno

Statement

What drives my practice is attracting happiness. I see no more interesting way of making time. My main tools are play, togetherness, silliness and thinking – targeting all human-conceived constraints, in particular gender, age and geographical sociocultural roles. My performances and films begin with a story or idea which persists. I then start taking notes (words, images, sounds…) and looking for co-creators. The making processes and the works can take many forms, but they always involve bodies (human, light, matter) and radical imagination.

GlogauAIR Project

The Catalinas Project (IG CatalinasProject) is a series of 5 short films inspired by the life of Catalina/Antonio de Erauso. They are all timeless, non-verisimilar and a-historical, but also each is created with its own invention processes, has its own diverse storytelling and formal choices and can look and sound very different from the others. Apart from the titular character they share themes: (trans)gender, feminism, anti-colonialism and may share makers or objects.

Video and Video-performance

CV Summary

FILMOGRAPHY – DIRECTOR WRITER

2021-23

• She who lives by the sword. Short in postproduction. Part 3 of #catalinasproject
• Catalina meets the pope. Short. Part 5 of #catalinasproject
• Playing with my queer selves. Video performance.
• L’apprendista gabbiano. Video Performance.

1997-2015

• Black Sheep. Documentary.
• Bonny 60”. Video portrait.
• Red Office. Short
• The Double. Short
• Pedalare. Short
• Una Terra per Due Popoli. Documentary
• FK. Dance Video. Second Prize in its category

International festival selections: Her Vision (NYC), Sydney World Fest, Triloka Film Fest (India), Sandgrounder (UK), Inspirational Film Fest SW), Bee Lesbian Brazil, Seoul Int Women’s Film Festival, Queer Lisboa Int Film Fest, Dortmund/Cologne Int Women Film Fest, Pink Apple Lesbian Gay Film Fest Zurich, Montecatini International Film Festival,

PERFORMANCE & other PROJECTS

2020-23

• PESCiE Transmutande. Interactive performance.
• T-sex. Performance (director).
• Parti di madre trans. Theatre performance (director).
• Pleimor – Sirene Mutande. Lecture performance.
• APTICA – Storie di contatto. Curated photography project for Contemporary Locus.
• PESCiE fuor d’acqua. Coral street performance.

SHOWS & EXHIBITIONS

• Parti di Madre Trans. Bocciodromo Vicenza, Teatro Nuova Commedia Firenze, Teatro Refugio Livorno,Teatro Bellarte Torino.
• L’Apprendista Gabbiano – installazione interattiva. Collettiva ‘Corpo’ Spazio Livorno
• T-Sex. Spazio Livorno
• Catalina incontra il papa – installazione. Collettiva Galleria Area+ Livorno,
• PESCiE Transmutande. Magazzini Generali Carico Massimo Livorno
• PESCiE fuor d’acqua. Effetto Venezia Livorno
• Pleimor. Pelanda Ex Mattatoio Roma

RESIDENCIES

• 2023: Off-Courts Trouville (FR) film pre-production, GlogauAIR Berlin onlline (D) project development, Senseless Milan (IT) project development and presentation

FILM INDUSTRY

DoP, CAMERA, CONTINUITY, COMMISSIONED WORK

1. 2016.

DoP. Australia

• The Russian by Sara Henkins. Short, 2011
• Consequences by Danielle Van Herk. Short, 2010
• Aggression by Kevin Chong. Short, 2011
• Borderline by Justin Todd. Short, 2010
• Sunkissed by John Clarck. Short, 2010
• You are just Not Good Enough by Kevin Chong. Short, 2010
• Fishing for love by Estee Chang. Short, 2009
• Redhood by Michael Mauline. Short, 2009

To this day I produce videos upon commission, direction, camera, sound recording and montage. I have 3 years experience as Camera and Assistant Camera in Australia; 7+ years work as Continuity in Italy and Spain covering eleven feature films and various tv ads.

EDUCATION

• 2019- PhD Candidate Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Dissertation title: Play and playfulness in cinematic arts.
• 2021 Master II Performance Arts and Public Space (PACS), Università Roma 3 e PalaExpo.
• 2009-10 Sydney International Film School. Cinematography course.
• 1992 BA in D.A.M.S., Tesi: ‘Antonin Artaud Il Teatro e il suo doppio’. Università di Bologna.

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

• Book Chapter. ”Life in Cinematic Bodies at Play. The example of Daisies (1966). Play and Democracy. Ed. Collection. Routledge. 2022. Book
• Book Chapter. “Stop Making Sense. Notes on Playful Cinema and Performance”. Philosophy at Play IV. Eds. Malcolm MacLean, Wendy Russell, Emily Ryall. Routledge, London, 2021. Book
• Essay. “Feminism, destruction and joy in Daisies (1966)”. East European Film Bulletin, vol. 88, October 2018. https://eefb.org/retrospectives/feminism-destruction-and-joy-in-daisies/

Gallery