PERSON x PERSONA

Synopsis: Surrealism collides with the realism of Salvador Dali’s life and insecurities. A sadism-obsessed childhood, deep-seated fears of the female anatomy, and an unsettling lust for a brutal dictator’s flesh, all wrapped in the grip of his nymphomaniac muse. A journey through fame’s intoxication, climaxing at the purest moment when the person and the persona meet as the clock strikes death's rattle. Director's note: As a queer filmmaker, lesbian pro-dominatrix, and performance artist manifesting personas across 2 decades, Salvador Dali’s vivid drama and ostentatious style lay shadows of, depending on who you ask, moral and questionable truths that I find, given his status, a perfect subject to analyze the masks not only that I wear but those you wear, too. Like my own artistic alter egos, his persona granted provocative liberties, yet impunity can corrupt. Reexamining Dali unveils disquieting truths beneath his showmanship. Where did his lines blur? With the provocative liberties I’ve manifested, this contrasts my experiences facing marginalization, stigma, surviving invisible disability and labor conditions while being an actively doxxed artist and aging dominatrix still navigating personas. I’ve long employed artistic masks to embrace stigmatized perspectives, surviving creatively through art. I value accountability. Technology now increasingly blends our personas with our personal identities. What happens when our forged selves fuse with our less digitized lives? Dali’s persona channeled traumatic imaginings with sadistic shadows. As personas digitally integrate with our core selves, how do we extract what liberates yet abandon what oppresses? Can artistic masks uplift marginalized voices if networked algorithms monitor and manipulate? Will technology and our networked future check such power and not concentrate it, especially for the most marginalized? If so, perhaps our digital identities and personas can unveil truth rather than obscure it. In solidarity,
 La Maîtresse AI Cinema x Next Wave Cinema 1/1 Director, poet, Ai artist, sound design, editor: Madeline Marlowe aka La Maîtresse