Oct
22
2025
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Building 17 307 Media Arts/ VP Classroom
Painless Magic, a 66 minute documentary screening presented by visiting Portland filmmaker, Carl Diehl. Wednesday, October 22, 6:30PM doors, 7PM Screening in Building 17, Rm 307 at Lane Community College, Eugene. FREE admission
Carl Diehl’s kaleidoscopic account of creativity, camaraderie, and curiosity begins with the life and times of the late, great magician, vaudevillian, & comedy emcee, Werner “Dorny” Dornfield (1892 -1982), then splinters prismatically into a mosaic of riddles and revelations about artist-led initiatives elsewhen & elsewhere!
Painless Magic is a 66 minute documentary that shimmers with ephemera from the Golden Age of stage magic and beyond, and intrigues with anecdotes from magicians, historians, & Dorny’s oldest surviving relatives. But that’s not all! Misdirection abounds as this experimental ethnography draws insights from filmmakers, musicians, performance artists, & philosophers, suggesting correspondences across contexts of art, magic, and everyday life!
FREE SCREENING! ALL ARE WELCOME!! Arrive early at 6:30PM for assorted mid-century magic puzzles and ephemera, screening starts 7PM, followed by Q+A with visiting filmmaker, Carl Diehl