QUIXOTIC ESSENTIA (3:05)
Created by Sophia Deininger
Featuring Elke Van der Steen, Daniel Muñoz and Sophia Deininger
Costumes by Luisa Marielli
Music by Sophia Denininger

SYNOPSIS:
Quixotic Essentia (3:05) was created by Sophia Deininger and features herself with Elke Van der Steen and Daniel Munoz. The film presents the meeting of minds after a long journey culminates in a ritualistic offering that leads to a transfiguration of ego. As the transformation evolves a higher self-existence is realized through spiritual emancipation. Styling, hair and makeup by Sophia Deininger and Elke Van der Steen.

CONTRIBUTOR BIOS:
Sophia Deininger
www.sophiadeininger.com
“Sophia Deininger is a mixed media artist currently based in the Bay Area. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where she studied Visual Communications. She now works as filmmaker, video artist, designer, painter and photographer. She draws much of her inspiration from dramatic stimulus, fashion imagery, mythological symbolism and projections of the subconscious. Her work often explores ideas of feminine divinity and empowerment through glamour, sensuality and style. She is interested in defining identity through reinvention and performance.
Recently Sophia has been directing and editing music videos, working on short films and hopes to continue expanding her work in film and fashion.”

Elke Van der Steen
Elke Van der Steen is a costume designer, writer and model. She completed her BA in Comparative Literature from the University of San Francisco and has studied Translation at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Her interests lay in the linguistic and philosophical interpretations of the human experience and the creative realization of these interpretations. Elke is inclined to visual art, literature, fashion and language and is currently developing a way to professionally braid these subjects together. She is the staff writer for the blog Partial Coverage and has been published in TELOSscope an online press blog and Fräuleinwunder magazine. Her designs have been featured in numerous works for the stage and film.

Daniel Muñoz
Daniel Muñoz is a musicologist, aesthetic theorist, composer, sound artist, model, and actor. Muñoz has been seen in videos for the Violent Femmes (Tonight), the Smashing Pumpkins (Bullet With Butterfly wings), Sonic Youth (Diamond Sea), and Jack Irons (Love is All We Want). Muñoz is a PhD student at University of California, Santa Cruz, working on a dissertation on noise music in Los Angeles. When Muñoz grows up he’ll finally become whom he already is.

Luisa Marielli
www.thefineartofdesign.com
www.thesalvationshow.tumblr.com
Luisa Marielli was born among the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico, where she developed a deep appreciation for costume by watching the barefoot, yet overly accessorized, indigenous gypsies of the area. She later lived in the valleys of the Southern California desert, eventually moving to the hills of San Francisco to study fashion.
Marielli recently wrapped up her “Salvation Show” project where she peddled vintage clothing from city to city, based on the early principles of retailing. She has settled her roots back in the desert, this time Palm Desert, working on “The Fine Art of Design,” a boutique blending fashion, literature, and design into a palpable retail experience.