Daphne screening in International Short Dox section at DokuFest, Kosovo Premiere

Screening:

Sun 4th Aug 2024, 15:00 at Dokukino, Prizren

Melbourne International Film Festival Australian Premiere

Screenings:

14 Aug 2024 2:00pm You Burn Me (64 m) Daphne was a torso ending in leaves (13 m) at ACMI 2 

19 Aug 2024 6:30pm You Burn Me (64 m) Daphne was a torso ending in leaves (13 m) at Kino 2  

“Winner of the KNF Award at Rotterdam, a playful and richly cinematic ode to the mythological Greek nymph.

The mythical metamorphosis of Greek nymph Daphne, who escaped a menacing god by turning into a bay-laurel tree, is reborn in a contemporary Rome surrounded by parks, gardens and the persistent symbol of the woman-as-tree. Shot on vibrant 16mm film, this witty, textural ode to the enduring nymph is a mini filmic treasure.”

Review in Little White Lies Dancing and different ways of seeing at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival by Xuanlin Tham mentions Daphne, 31st May 2024

“In the Scottish borders, this bold independent film festival champions new ways of seeing, with a 2024 focus on the work of Palestinian artist Noor Abed…”

“…Though I truly left every screening feeling electrified, perhaps my favourite programme was ‘Lands of Make Believe’. These films interrogated the abstraction, violence, and erasure enacted by mythology: from the Floridian, humid televangelism of Sarah Ballard’s Heat Spells or the re-narration of BP’s colonial exploitation of Iran in Nariman Massoumi’s Pouring Water on Troubled Oil, to the Greek nymph Daphne’s sublimation into a laurel tree in Catriona Gallagher’s Daphne was a torso ending in leaves. Shot on 16mm and processed in a solution made from bay leaves, Daphne’s metamorphosis imbibed into this film’s very chemistry.”

Review by Ben Nicholson January 31st, 2024

“Daphne was a torso ending in leaves has its origins in a Greek tale most famously retold in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Taking the classical source material as inspiration, Catriona Gallagher has created an almost wordless essay film that acts as an ode to Daphne both in her original form as a nymph and her subsequent life as the laurel tree. Shot on grainy 16mm that was developed in a solution containing bay leaves, Gallagher’s film takes a particularly embodied story and crafts a haptic cinematic experience that communes with it…”

UK Premiere of Daphne was a torso ending in leaves at Alchemy Film Festival, Hawick, 2-5 May 2024

Screening: Lands of Make Believe

HEART OF HAWICK

SATURDAY 4 MAY
12:00 – 13:30 / 66′ + Q&A

Catriona Gallagher and Nariman Massoumi will be present for the Q&A. 

PROGRAMME NOTES
by Rachael Disbury

In Lands Of Make Believe, four films scrutinise mythmaking as the basis and backdrop of narratives taken for granted – those of nationhood, colonialism, erasure and empire. 

Catriona Gallagher’s Daphne was a torso ending in leaves centres on a heroine of classical mythology. Reanimating Daphne’s metamorphosis from woman to laurel tree, following her plea for protection from Apollo’s pursuits, Gallagher questions the obliteration and abstraction implicit in the tale. Guiding us through Daphne’s materiality and centrality, from the high-status symbol of the laurel wreath to the nourishing staple of the bay leaf, Gallagher intervenes upon feminine erasure with an immersive soundtrack, transfixing 16mm imagery and a carefully paced text-based suspense. 

Screening alongside Sarah Ballard’s Heat Spells, Chris Paul Daniels’s Is there anybody there? and Nariman Massoumi’s Pouring Water On Troubled Oil

Daphne on film: Eco processing 16mm film with bay-laurel

Organised by Dr Lucy Bradnock (The Courtauld) as part of the Modern and Contemporary Lecture and Seminar Series.  

This performance lecture and screening will explore the artist’s process of developing 16mm film in bay leaf infusions and phytogram prints on film and photographic paper, as well as her research on the metamorphosis of Daphne.

25th Mar 2024

17:30 - 19:00

Free, booking essential

Vernon Square Campus, Lecture Theatre 2

Greek Premiere of Daphne was a torso ending in leaves at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival

PHYSICAL SCREENING: Friday 15th March 2024, 15:00 Zannas. 

ONLINE SCREENING (geoblocked to Greece): 7th–17th March. 

Daphne was a torso ending in leaves is a playful and witty ode to a star of classical mythology: Daphne. Here, the beautiful nymph, who was metamorphosed into a tree to escape a stalking God, is celebrated as a heroine and master of her destiny. But this cinematic gem, shot on 16mm, is above all a rich filmic experience, in which images and sound are meticulously intertwined to immerse the spectator in a universe of myth and legend. A spritely and tactile essayistic ode to a heroine of Greek myth, and a profound reflection on the legacy of an ancient arboreal transformation. 

Μια παιχνιδιάρικη και διεισδυτική ωδή σε μια πρωταγωνίστρια της κλασικής μυθολογίας, τη Δάφνη. Εδώ, η πανέμορφη νύμφη, η οποία προκειμένου να ξεφύγει από έναν θεό που την καταδίωκε μεταμορφώθηκε σε δέντρο, αποθεώνεται σαν ηρωίδα και κύρια της μοίρας της. Αυτό το κινηματογραφικό διαμάντι, γυρισμένο σε 16mm, αποτελεί πρωτίστως μια πλούσια κινηματογραφική εμπειρία, κατά την οποία εικόνες και ήχος εναρμονίζονται για να βυθιστεί ο θεατής στο καθηλωτικό σύμπαν της μυθολογίας και των θρύλων. Μια απτή δοκιμιακή ωδή, που σφύζει από ζωή, για μια ηρωίδα της ελληνικής μυθολογίας και ένας βαθυστόχαστος στοχασμός στην παρακαταθήκη της αρχαϊκής δενδρικής μεταμόρφωσης. 

Tiger Short Competition IFFR 2024 - Winners

KNF Award 2024

A jury from the Kring van Nederlandse Filmjournalisten (Circle of Dutch Film Journalists) selected their own highlight to receive the KNF award: Daphne was a torso ending in leaves (Italy, Greece) by Catriona Gallagher. The jury was Ronald Glasbergen, Sebastiaan Khouw and Ard Vijn.

The KNF jury on Daphne was a torso ending in leaves: 

“The members of the KNF Critics Jury saw all 21 Tiger Shorts and choosing a winner wasn’t easy this year. Among us three, we had no less than nine favourites to discuss. Debating the last three took some time as we all had a different personal choice. But rest assured, we are all satisfied with our winner.” 

“Many films were experimental in nature this year, but the winning short managed to use its style to support the story it told. It was also technically accomplished, showing an almost tactile playfulness between analogue and digital formats. And it was an interesting concept, an artistic researching of its subject, moving from a person, to a myth, to art, to objects with everyday use. The techniques used, the images used, are an homage to art in general, and to film specifically.” 

Film by Padraig Cunningham Pure Designs, Nov 2023

World Festival Premiere of Daphne was a torso ending in leaves at International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Tiger Short Competition. 27th January 2024.

Daphne was a torso ending in leaves

2024, 13 minutes

Digitised 16mm film with phytograms, colour footage, and black & white footage developed in bay leaves