DADDA – Poodle House Saloon

The intention of art as the act of rearranging the given, a voice of the encapsulation of what appears to be. DADDA – Poodle House Saloon is the first of five feature-length chapters made in the Saloon. These are part of a larger series of 20 feature-length chapters of CSSC / DADDA Coach Stage Stage Coach / Donald And Daisy Duck Adventure, a pseudo western series, a meditation on mediated violence. Over the course of the first film, Donald Duck, his wife Daisy Duck, their daughter Bonkers, Nancy Reagan, Andy Warhol, John Wayne, Mini, Heidi, Poncho, and the Cartwrights abuse, torture, and kill each other.
The saloon set used for DADDA – Poodle House Saloon is a replica of the set used in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1971 film Whity, which had also been used in the 1966 classic spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood. Today, the original set can still be found in Mini Hollywood, a wild-west town in Almería, Spain that American western movie directors used as a cheaper filming location in the 1960s and ‘70s. In recreating this set, a kind of cultural looping and layering occurred and is now embedded in DADDA – Poodle House Saloon.
by Paul McCarthy, Damon McCarthy
with Paul McCarthy, Rachel Alig, Jennifer Daley, Kerry Wieder, James Skinner, Honey Lauren, Natasha Estrada, Lillian Solange, Jesse McBride, Jose de Jesus Martinez, Bernhard Schütz, Michael Villar, Dave Vescio, Sebastian Fernandez, Paul McDade, Jack Spralja
USA 2018 English 93’ Colour

With

  • Paul McCarthy (Donald Duck)
  • Rachel Alig (Daisy Duck)
  • Jennifer Daley (Bonkers)
  • Kerry Wieder (Nancy Reagan)
  • James Skinner (Andy Warhol)
  • Honey Lauren (Ivana)
  • Natasha Estrada (Heidi)
  • Lillian Solange (Minnie)
  • Jesse McBride (John Wayne)
  • Jose de Jesus Martinez (Cowboy/Pancho)
  • Bernhard Schütz (Ben Cartwright)
  • Michael Villar (Hoss Cartwright)
  • Dave Vescio (Adam Cartwright)
  • Sebastian Fernandez (Little Joe Cartwright )
  • Paul McDade (Bartender/Paul Ryan)
  • Jack Spralja (Cowboy)

Crew

Director Paul McCarthy, Damon McCarthy
Screenplay Paul McCarthy
Cinematography Damon McCarthy, Eric Treml
Editing Damon McCarthy
Music Extended Organ
Sound Design Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy
Sound Dean Lee
Production Design Sean Townley
Costumes Moeko Maeda
Make-Up Lancel Reyes
Casting Julia Kim
Producers Jaime Blauvelt, Damon McCarthy, Karen McCarthy

Produced by

McCarthy Studios

Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy, born in Salt Lake City, USA in 1945, earned a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969, and an MFA in multimedia, film, and art from the University of Southern California in 1973. His sculptures, performances, and videos mix high and low culture, and provoke an analysis of our fundamental beliefs. McCarthy’s work thus locates the traumas lurking behind the stage set of the American Dream and identifies their counterparts in the art historical canon. For 18 years he taught performance, video, installation, and art history in the New Genres Department at UCLA. His work has shown extensively worldwide.

Filmography (selection (starting 2003))

2003 Bunker Basement; with Damon McCarthy, video installation · Piccadilly Circus; with Damon McCarthy, video installation · WGG Test; video installation 2004 Documents Flicker Video; 5 min. 2005 Caribbean Pirates Houseboat Party; with Damon McCarthy, video installation · F-Fort Party WX Multi Channel; video installation · New Port; video installation, 25 min. · Parade, Haus Der Kunst, Garden, Munich Germany, Edit 2006 Projection Room 1971-2006 (Stockholm); video installation 2007 Projection Room 1971-2007 (Ghent) 2008 Reversion (The Echo) · Sound of Music (Upside Down and Backwards) 2012 Rebel Dabble Babble; video installation 2013 White Snow; with Damon McCarthy, video installation 2017 CSSC/DADDA Flicker · CSSC 2015-2017; with Damon McCarthy, video installation · DADDA; with Damon McCarthy, video installation 2018 Night Vater; with Damon McCarthy, video installation

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019

Damon McCarthy

Damon McCarthy, born in 1973 and raised Los Angeles, USA, earned a BA in film at the California Institute of the Arts in 1998. For the last 18 years, he has collaborated with his father, Paul McCarthy, as co-director and editor of many complex performative video installations and large-scale projects. Their collaborative works have been shown extensively worldwide.

Filmography (selection)

2003 Bunker Basement; with Paul McCarthy, video installation · Piccadilly Circus; with Paul McCarthy, video installation 2005 Caribbean Pirates Houseboat Party; with Paul McCarthy, video installation 2013 White Snow; with Paul McCarthy, video installation 2017 CSSC 2015-2017; with Paul McCarthy, video installation · DADDA; with Paul McCarthy, video installation 2018 Night Vater; with Paul McCarthy, video installation · DADDA – Poodle House Saloon; with Paul McCarthy

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019