Mercedes, Here Lies the Heart

color, 16mm, 35 minutes, 2001

Mercedes, Here lies the Heart is dedicated to the memory of poet, novelist, playwright, and Hollywood screenwriter, Mercedes de Acosta. Mercedes is inspired by De Acosta’s own published memoirs, Here Lies the Heart (1960) in which De Acosta obsessively lists her impressive cache of celebrity acquaintances (including Elenora Duse, Isadora Duncan. Alice B. Toklas, Mariene Deitrich, and Greta Garbo, among others). The film borrows De Acosta’s hyperbolic stylistics to move through archival footage, narrative fantasy sequences, and dramatic “reenactments” in manic combination of varied genre forms. While highlighting De Acosta’s distinctive passions for celebrity and her own sexual, ethic, and spiritual entanglements, Mercedes poses questions about biographical structure and autobiographical representation, history and fantasy, identity and desire.

Screenings

2003 Market Catalogue Screening, 25th International Women Directors’ Film Festival, Créteil, France.
2003 Thaw  ’03 Film Video and Digital Festival, Iowa City, IA.
2003 Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, OH.
2003 Eleventh Edition of the International Lesbian Film Festival IMMAGINARIA, Bologna, Italy.
2002 Everson Museum of Art Contemporary Film Series, Syracuse, NY.
2001 21st Annual Women in the Director’s Chair International Film & Video Festival, Chicago, IL.
2002 Black Maria Film & Video Festival (Director’s Citation), touring festival.
2001 Seattle Underground Film and Video Festival, Seattle, WA.
2001 Media/Tonic:  Pittsburgh Filmmakers 30th Anniversary, Pittsburgh, PA
2001 Stony Brook Film Festival, Stony Brook, NY.
2001 Women Direct Festival & Symposium, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.