Marie Antoinette Art Film Fundraiser

MARIE ANTOINETTE, AN ART FILM BY ALYSSA DILLARD

[Letter from the Director]

Hello,
I want to take a moment to introduce myself. 

My name is Alyssa Dillard, I am the creator and director of “Marie Antoinette”. 

I love this story because it shows Marie from a new perspective. 

For me, Marie Antoinette is a representation of the unheard, and unseen. In the 2021 reality we live in so much is based on perception but we rarely see what is happening with the actual person. 

The same with Marie. Her most famous quote “Let them eat cake” wasn’t even something she said. The perception of the societies around her shaped her history, her legacy. 

When I first moved to Prague in 2017 I left my whole world in Texas behind. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for but I know I needed something. Space, freedom, exploration? Maybe all of the above. However, when it came time to make a masters thesis project I was totally stuck. I felt insecure, uncertain, lost, and scared. I didn’t know if I had what it took to be a director and kept questioning myself, doubting the decisions I made. After a few months of driving myself insane with self doubt I had a moment of inspiration. I started asking myself why I felt it was so impossible to do, and began imagining: if I had anything in the world, all the money and all the resources, what would I want to create? I thought about all the things around me that I could never have on my own and what I really would love to become if I could, and through this thought process I realized I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to have large things and I wanted a palace. I wanted decadence, access, freedom, lightness, and beauty. I wanted to become the thing I was always told I could never be. 

And that was the basic premise. 

It’s been three years since I began developing “Marie” and she has had so many lives, as an installation, theatre performance, online performance, performance in a baroque garden. Now it’s time to continue developing “Marie in a new way” I wanted to film this project because it fits so many mediums and working with film only made sense. This is the first step of many, I wanted to create a short version first to explore how she works on camera, how to introduce a project as experimental as Marie to the medium. 

As an experimental artist the most important part of the work is the experimentation. It’s a constant and occasionally frustrating work. But, especially for me, an artist at the beginning of their professional career this is the most exciting part. Every new step is an exploration. 

This is also the time when my work needs the most support. This is all still new, and fresh full of ideas and impulses. I don’t have the notoriety of larger artists, and I don’t want it right now. I know that being in this beginning stage is important. 

But, it comes with a risk, being new makes it harder to get sponsors, harder to get grants, and institutional support. I want to be able to continue my work, to continue this process. Because with each step it only gets better. 

It started with a thesis project, performances, festivals, and now a short film. 

And it will only grow with each continuing step in the process. This is the perfect time to contribute and join in the process. 

Don’t you want to see what’s next? 

Join the journey of this wonderful world of Marie Antoinette and you'll find out <3 

See you at the premiere! 

With Love,
Alyssa Dillard
Creator: Marie Antoinette Walks Down An Elegant Hallway Knowing Everyone Hates Her 




[The Project]
[for the Czech version please scroll down]

Marie Antoinette Walks Through an Elegant Hallway Knowing Everyone Hates Her  is a project exploring identity, in which one is able to explore the world of Marie Antoinette and see if they can find the truth of this famous character. But in the process, they might find another version of themselves, too. In a world where so much is overwhelming and uncertain maybe it’s time to eat a little bit of cake.

Photo:Varvara Gorbunova

We have created this fundraiser to complete the filming of the project and the postproduction in order to have a premiere and present the film to a wider audience.

We need. your help to finalize this project and fully bring it to life. We currently need $10,000. We hope to raise this amount, so all the talented creatives and emerging artists who have dedicated their time and effort to this project can be fairly compensated for their work. We would be very grateful for any amount of support. Please share of this campaign with your friends and family too! 


It is elevated chaos, a messy decolonizing reappropriation of the ideal of European aristocracy. It is operating in a way as if the collage version *were* the accurate version. Unapologetic for its imperfections, but always trying to mimic in a manner that retains at least one aspect that directly relates to the imagined original.

Photo: Miljan Vuljetić

We are currently fundraising to:

Edit and color grade the project ($2000)
Raise additional funds to pay the team for their hard work ($1000)

Marie Antoinette is a very ambitious project and this is only the first step in a larger process to create an art film triptych exploring the theme of confronting societal expectations and colonialist history through history, dance, and introspection. 

In order for Alyssa and the creative team to work freely, it's important to have additional funds outside of grants, which are not able to provide the full support needed to create these projects to the scale we are looking to do. Having a small fund to continue working and start developing the other parts of our project will allow the work to exist more freely and with fewer compromises. 

So who are you helping with your donation? 

Let us introduce you to our amazing team. 



Creative Team: 


Photo: Filip Kunovski

Direction: Alyssa Dillard

Alyssa Dillard (https://www.alyssadillard.com/) is a performance artist and director from Texas, United States, who obtained her Masters in Directing of Devised and Object Theatre from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Theatre Faculty (DAMU). Currently based in Prague, she creates site-specific visual art installations and performances, mixing music, dance, theatre, installations, and film. Her work is an exploration of cultural mixtures and miscommunications, social interactions, viewership, and the intimacy between ourselves and those around us. She is searching for ways to create connections through our differences. Exploring the connection between new and old and the cultures that mix in between. She has performed in festivals in the Czech Republic, Germany and the United States. She looks forward to continuing her work in festivals in Italy, Slovenia, and Spain in the near future.

Cinematographer:  Kristina Kůlová is a 23 years old girl from Prague. She is studying cinematography at FAMU. She was fascinated by the light and colors of her youth. Her interests include photography, watching movies, reading and a of good glass of wine

Production: Lamija Čehajić
Production Assistant: Veronika Kaspi
Photography: Miljan Vuljetić, Varvara Gorbunova, Filip Kunovski
Costumes: Claudia Cazzorla, Ondra Menoušek
Make-up: Phil La Noiraude
Set Design: Emma Mast

Cast: 

Alyssa Dillard

Angela Nwagbo: Angela Nwagbo is a Czech actress and dancer of Nigerian descent. As a child she started dancing street styles in which she later continued to develop her skills as a member of a professional group called JAD Dance Company by performing, taking classes with international teachers,  battling and clubbing. She’s also a member of BaToCu, an ensemble specialising in West African music and dance. In 2018 she started studying acting for alternative and puppet theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. 

Soojin Jo:  Soojin Jo is a student at the Academy of Performing Arts-Music and Dance Faculty (HAMU) she is from South Korea and has lived in Prague for 2 years. She has danced in a number of performances and film projects and is also working with Alyssa on We Didn't Know What To Do So We Danced and L.O.V.E/L.A.S.K.O. She loves cooking food and going to the sauna and her dream is to vacation in Bali and work as a dancer and choreographer around the world. 

Marie Anna Krušinová:  Marie Anna Krusinova is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts Theatre Faculty (DAMU). She has worked in numerous theatre and film projects and aspires to be in more films in the future. She enjoys making Christmas wreaths for her friends and doting on her mother's lovely dog. She is also a very talented singer, recently performing in the Czech folk concert Sbor along with Angela.  


Photo: Filip Kunovski


For the current film adaptation of the project we have partnered with a Renaissance palace and Baroque garden in Prague and we have involved recent graduates and students from different Art Academies in Prague. The film project is a part of the wider experimental triptych that will include two more films that together establish a conceptual whole of Alyssa Dillard’s current artistic preoccupations.

Photo: Filip Kunovski

Marie Antoinette is the initiation of the exploration of the complex interactions of liberty and constraint. We attempt to capture characters in their natural habitat, showing the reality of the world created through the original performance, depicting them through the moving image. Each Marie, constructed through the assemblage nature of their individual costume, surrounded by the flamboyance of the baroque-esque scenography, is given the spotlight to devise herself into her most decadent self. It is the world of escapism, uncertainty wrapped in the rococo carelessness, a never-ending party of powdered wigs and flows of champagne. As long as we are Marie, we can be whoever we want.

Photo: Varvara Gorbunova

** We will be updating the page with snippets of footage and Marie Antoinette Walks Through an Elegant Hallway Knowing Everyone  Hates Her prints and merchandise to thank you for your kind support and show our gratitude!

We thank you in advance for your time, your consideration and your potential support of any kind.

Merci!

Alyssa Dillard + Marie Antoinette Production Team


- ČESKY-

Performance Marie Antoinetta prochází elegantní chodbou s vědomím, že ji všichni nenávidí, vznikla na DAMU jako diplomová práce Alyssy Dillard. Jedná se o projekt zkoumající identitu, v němž má člověk možnost prozkoumat svět Marie Antoinetty a zjistit, zda dokáže najít pravdu o této slavné postavě. Není nemožné, že však při tom naleznou i jinou verzi sebe sama. Ve světě, kde se vše zdá být zdrcující a nejisté, je možná čas dát si kus dortu dortu.

Tuto sbírku jsme vytvořili za účelem dokončení natáčení projektu a postprodukce, abychom mohli uspořádat premiéru a představit náš film širšímu publiku. Na dokončení projektu a na to, abychom mohli zaplatit všem, kteří se podíleli na jeho vzniku, potřebujeme v současné době $10,000 [220.000Kč]. Doufáme, že se nám tuto částku podaří získat, aby všichni talentovaní tvůrci*kyně a umělci*kyně, kteří*ré tomuto projektu věnovali*y svůj čas a úsilí, mohli*y být za svou práci spravedlivě odměněni*y. Budeme velmi vděční za jakoukoli částku podpory nebo sdílení této kampaně na sociálních sítích! 

Je to kurátorovaný chaos a dekolonizační přivlastnění ideálu evropské aristokracie. Působí tak, jako by kolážová verze *byla* verzí přesnou. Neomlouvá se za své nedokonalosti, ale vždy se snaží napodobovat způsobem, který zachovává alespoň jeden aspekt, jenž přímo souvisí s imaginárním originálem.

Pro aktuální filmovou adaptaci projektu jsme spolupracovali s Martinickým palácem a Vrtbovskou zahradou v Praze. Na projektu se současně podílí absolventi*ky a studenti*ky z různých pražských uměleckých akademií. Filmový projekt je součástí širšího experimentálního triptychu, který bude zahrnovat další dva filmy, jež společně vytvoří konceptuální celek současného uměleckého zájmu Alyssy Dillard.

Marie Antoinetta je počátkem zkoumání složitých interakcí svobody a omezení. Snažíme se zachytit postavy v jejich přirozeném prostředí, ukázat realitu světa vytvořeného prostřednictvím originálního představení a zobrazit jej skrz pohyblivý obraz. Každá Marie, konstruovaná skrze asambláž svého kostýmu, obklopená okázalostí barokní scénografie, dostává prostor, aby se vymyšleným způsobem proměnila ve své nejdekadentní já. Je to svět eskapismu, nejistoty zabalené do rokokové bezstarostnosti, nekonečný večírek napudrovaných paruk a proudů šampaňského. Dokud jsme Marie, můžeme být, kým chceme.

Photo: Miljan Vuljetić

Režisérka:
Alyssa Dillard (https://www.alyssadillard.com/) je performerka a režisérka z Texasu ve USA, která získala magisterský titul v oboru režie autorského a objektového divadla na Katedře alternativního a loutkového divadla na DAMU v Praze. V současné době žije v Praze a vytváří site-specific vizuální umělecké instalace a performance, v nichž se mísí hudba, tanec, divadlo, instalace a film. Její práce je zkoumáním kulturních směsí a nedorozumění, sociálních interakcí, diváctví a intimity mezi námi a lidmi kolem nás. Hledá způsoby, jak vytvářet spojení skrze naše odlišnosti. Zkoumá spojení mezi novým a starým a kulturami, které se prolínají. Vystupovala na festivalech v České republice, Německu a Spojených státech. V blízké budoucnosti se těší na prezentaci své práce na festivalech v Itálii, Slovinsku a Španělsku. 

Kamera: Kristina Kůlová
Produkce: Lamija Čehajić
Asistentka produkce:  Veronika  Kashpi
Fotografie: Miljan Vuljetić, Varvara Gorbunova, Filip Kunovski
Kostýmy: Claudia Cazzorla, Ondra Menoušek
Make-up: Phil La Noiraude
Scénografie: Emma Mast

Účinkujíci: Alyssa Dillard, Angela Nwagbo, Soojin Jo, Marie Anna Krušinová

** Stránku budeme průběžně doplňovat o ukázky natočeného materiálu, tisků a merchu, abychom vám poděkovali za vaši přízeň a vyjádřili naši vděčnost!

Předem vám děkujeme za váš čas a případnou podporu jakéhokoli druhu.

Merci!
Alyssa Dillard + produkční tým Marie Antoinette