Producer:
MiShinnah Productions, Inc
About the Producer:
MiShinnah Productions, Inc. is a New York based 501c3 non-profit corporation dedicated to enriching our local communities by bringing art to the public through performances, films and internet projects created by cross-genre artists. MiShinnah is a concept inspired by the words mishnah and shannah meaning to repeat the oral book - in other words, to make a "tradition." MiShinnah also refers to the machine for making art, and it is our goal to become that machinery.
MiShinnah artists work to educate and transform themselves and others through the process of making art, establishing a unique American tradition of making art through collaboration. Our projects are timeless, universal and classic and we strive to attract the sophisticated audience member with an adventurous spirit.
Screenplay:
Elise Kermani and Euripides (Translated by Brain Swann and Peter Burian).
Film synopsis:
In Sophocles' play "Oedipus Rex" Jocasta hangs herself shortly after finding out that Oedipus is both her husband and son. In Euripides' play "The Phoenician Women", Jocasta stays alive a little bit longer to try and reconcile her sons but stabs herself shortly after they kill each other during the war at Thebes.
But in Kermani's film "Jocasta", Jocasta stays alive after her sons' mutual murders to perform a sacrifice to save Thebes, and to satiate Ares' ancient fury of Kadmos' slaying of the dragon. Jocasta chooses the creative act of writing over suicide. Her ritual act remembers that Body is Presence (Plato's 'ousia' and Heidegger's 'Ereignis') and Jocasta reminds us that she (also known as Iocasta) is related to Io, the Great Cow goddess of Egypt.
The origins of writing are sacred manifestations of ousia/hestia...esti/Being. She reverses the taboo of incest, and reestablishes the symbollic image of mother and son.
Jocasta's sacrifice was inspired by an ancient Persian ritual of ingesting the Word to cure illness.
www.elisekermani.com/jocasta.html
www.elisekermani.com/thejocastaproject.html