Mar 17, 2025

Carl Diehl – Painless Magic

In this 65 minute documentary, Carl Diehl chronicles the histories of his grand-uncle — the magician, vaudevillian, and comedy emcee, Werner “Dorny” Dornfield (1892 -1982). This kaleidoscopic account of curiosity, camaraderie, and creativity shimmers with ephemera from the Golden Age of stage magic and beyond, and delights with anecdotes from magicians, historians, & Dorny’s oldest surviving relatives.  Dorny established magic clubs in Chicago in the 1910s and performed soldier-actor gigs across Europe at the end of WWI. He toured North America with Broadway star Elsie Janis, was friends with Houdini and Thurston, and  orchestrated elaborate showcases in the Magic Capital of the World.
As with any magic act, misdirection abounds, and Painless Magic wanders into a world bigger than the portrait it first appears to be! Through conversations with experimental filmmakers, performance artists, musicians, and philosophers, Carl Diehl unveils shared sensibilities across contexts of art, magic, & everyday life.

Carl Diehl (he/him/they/them) has resided in Portland since 2007. He has shown his independent and collaboratively produced short videos, performances, and installations at venues including The Schneider Museum of Art, the &Now Festival of New Writing, Grand Detour, and Shapeshifters Cinema. In 2013 he co-founded Weird Shift, an artist-run initiative which has included a storefront exhibition space, podcasts, and an on-going Microtalks series. Diehl teaches courses in the history and practice of digital and time-based art at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

https://www.electronicelsewhere.com/