projects

Heather's Dream
Short (15 min.)

a project by Stefanie Schneider
cast: Udo Kier, Heather Megan Christie, Camille Waldorf, music: Adam Weiss, script: Tanja Trittmann, directed, photographed and edited by Stefanie Schneider, producer micafilm, Berlin, co-produced by Arte, supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

"Heather's Dream" has been accepted in the competition at the Short Film Festival in Oberhausen in May 2013!

Heather (Heather Megan Christie) lies on her bed and narrates off screen: "One morning I didn´t wake up. I had a fever". And then finds herself in a dazzling desert landscape. Here a magic doctor (Udo Kier) pursues his work in his office. Something is going on. Everything seems to be prepared. The atmosphere in his office, open to all directions is hypnotic. The patient is waiting for her mysterious treatment. Dried up plants are sitting on the table. A flip book, a suitcase, a broken heart.... Enchanted examinations begin. The bizarre, charismatic doctor continues his evaluation assisted by a fairy-like nurse (Camille Waldorf). The process follows a secret logic and Heather understands that there is hope to be healed. Heather's Dream has not been filmed in a classical way but Udo Kier's and Heather Megan Christie's acting has been photographed action by action, step by step with thousands of Polaroids and edited into sequence, combined with Super-8 footage. The bright light of California, the forsaken abandoned landscapes around 29 Palms and the faded colors of the Polaroid film contribute to the poetic and surreal atmosphere of he film.

>> www.heatherdreams.com

The Girl behind the White Picket Fence
Feature (61 min.)

wpf

a project by Stefanie Schneider
cast: Udo Kier, Heather Megan Christie, Steve Marshall, Kyle Larson, Jeff Leaf Camille Waldorf, music: Adam Weiss, Daisy McCrackin, Zoe Bicat, Axel Ruhland, Sophie Huber, Max Sharam, script: Stefanie Schneider, Tanja Trittmann, Robert Mack, Cheyenne Randall, Billy Harvey, directed, photographed and edited by Stefanie Schneider, producer micafilm, Berlin, producer California Instantdreams, Lance Waterman, co-produced by Arte, supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

This art film’s cryptic analysis of love is back-dropped by a feeling that our future is hopeless but that it relentlessly continues. ‘The Girl behind the White Picket Fence’ starts by introducing the orphaned girl ‘Heather’ (Heather Megan Christie) who lives in the Southern California Desert in her parent’s 50 foot travel trailer. Heather’s background reveals how through her ambition to grow, she steps out to find love but quickly realizes that there’s much more to life than she had thought. Retreating to her trailer, she finds a radio station that speaks her language. ‘The Lonely Hearts Radio Station’. The DJ (Steve Marshall) himself a refugee from a mysterious past of ended affairs, deals with his own demons. The local garbage man ‘Hank’ (Kyle Larson) who has issues too, due to the recent death of his wife, hears Heather call into the radio station and becomes obsessed with her and starts collecting her discarded memories on his garbage route. Damon the DJ quickly falls in love with Heather even though he’s never met her and sabotages Hanks interest by competing for her heart. Through the radio, love is reborn and the cycle continues.

A mystic shaman (Udo Kier) suddenly appears trying to help Heather and Hank to get together but fails until through a bizarre dream, shows her, how to become aware and find her future love. The ending is happy until you realize that the future they’re betting on, is hollow.

>> www.heatherdreams.com

29 Palms, CA

/projects/29 palms project

a project by Stefanie Schneider
in collobaration with Radha Mitchell, Renée Chabria, Marc Forster, Nadia Conners, Robert Mack, Camille Waldorf, JD Rudometkin and Udo Kier
producers: Mica film, Berlin, Caroline Haertel, Udo Kier, Robert Mack, Lance Waterman

29 PALMS is a feature film/art piece that explores and chronicles the dreams and fantasies of a group of individuals who live in a trailer community in the Californian desert. The world that the film depicts is inspired by the photographs of German artist Stefanie Schneider in that it combines the notions of reality and fantasy and explores the resonance of both within a desert landscape and a transient culture. A defining feature of the film is the use of still images and the use of voice over. Characters talk to us/themselves/you about their ambitions, memories, hopes, fears and dreams. The film is to be shot using a mix of super 8 and 16mm film stock and Polaroid images. Certain computer generated effected will also be used to enhance the films surreal mood and to animate its dark humor.

>> more info

sidewinder

a project by stefanie schneider

images, mise en scène and editing by stefanie schneider
story and script written by jd rudometkin

all music written and performed by jd rudometkin
acting by jd rudometkin and stefanie schneider
assistance kirsten schneider

"private history turned into an intimate mythology of ele- mental fantasies where reality is perceived through a veil of psychedelic memories and unconscious projections. such is a collection of passions and dreams, an uncanny diary of ephemeral narratives and mental intensities in Stefanie Schneider’s painterly photographs where subjectivity of an ontological doubt uses a poetics of pastische as a vehicle for an intertextual journey towards the truth and the au- thenticity of primary emotions. here time is immersed in a nostalgic suspense of oneiric dimension, a sort of ambig- uous coma of silence and comfort, and open space embraces a psychotic landscape of solitude and accidental pleasure. fetishisized surface of extreme feelings gives a stage for an unsolicited promise of unconditional love and unlimited freedom, a promise framed by sensual tension between ful- fillment and expectation."

Adam Budak, Kunsthaus Graz, Oct 2005

>> more info

Till Death Do Us Part

a project by Stefanie Schneider, camera Stefanie Schneider, music Daisy McCrackin, Sophie Huber, Zoë Bîcat, editing Stefanie Schneider, with Austen Tate (Margarita), Daisy McCrackin (Cristal), written by Austen Tate, Daisy McCrackin, Stefanie Schneider, sound editing: Sophie Huber, produced by MICA Film, Berlin, Caroline Haertel, supported by "Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg" and "ARTE".

"Till death do us part", an episode of the "29 Palms, CA" project supported by "Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and "ARTE", directed by Stefanie Schneider.

"MICA films", a Berlin based production company run by Caro- line Haertel and Mirjana Momirovic is currently producing the episode.

A film shot on Polaroid stills combined with Super 8 film sequences has never been done before. This unique project will be co-produced by ARTE and has received film funding from "Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg".

"Till death do us part" tells the love story of two beautiful women in the Californian desert. Cristal (Daisy McCracking) and Margarita (Austin Tate) meet in the abandoned town of 29 Palms,CA. They are both longing for something better after leaving a life neither could bare. They are full of hope and an intense lust for life. They want to live in the now, fast and wild. Their love starts on fast forward from the moment they meet.

The Californian desert light and the vintage colours of Polaroid create a unforgetable atmosphere in the abandoned trailer park.

Austen Tate gives Margarita her voice in poetry and Daisy McCracking give Cristal her sound in music. Additional music by Zoe Bicat and Sophie Huber.

Mica Film and Stefanie Schneider have founded the Record Label "29 Palms, CA Records" and Released the Soundtrack "Till Death Do Us Part" of Daisy McCRackin's music.

>> more info

   BRING ME TO THE BRINK

Stefanie Schneider meets Cyndi Lauper
{ ARTE 10.05.2008   20:15 - 21:00 }

/news/content/cindy_lauper/cindynews2.jpg

Stefanie Schneider photographs the Cyndi Lauper cover 2008.

>> more info