FILM

A primal & poetic dance through the emotional landscape of a menstruating woman.

A spontaneous transmission in the form of a cinematic poem. This multilayered meditation serves to heal one of the core wounds of our planet, the suppression and misunderstanding of women and their blood. 

Intimately filmed at their home in Hawaii, this moving portrait documents the creation and mood of the 12th painting, ‘Holy Trinity’. This award winning film developed organically as a natural unfolding of feeling, form, ritual and poetics. A contemplative voyage into the cyclical nature of pain, release, joy, grief and surrender.

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IMPRESSIONS

"This film reclaims the image of the body as a universal symbol for our humanity, with everything that implies."

GLENN DESMEDT, operatic singer + composer

"Trust. Simplicity. The red blood of warmth that companions the quiet wet grief. Flow is life’s primary expression. These images confirm life. The images with the lava had a powerful impact for me."

JANE JOHNSON, healer

"It’s a great film qua film — the shots, voice over, pacing, music. It looks, sounds, feels downright fantastic. There’s this persistent hum to it — a steady, gently pulsing, quiet seething movement. The flow of life indeed. I like the way the poetry has this rhythm & tone of explaining but never gets didactic. I thought of that film of Andy Goldsworthy, ‘Rivers & Tides’, it is itself a work of art that ‘documents’ other art."

DANIEL COFFEEN, philosopher, rhetorician + writer

"Such a profound meditation. The alignment of the words, images and ideas is deeply moving. I love the playfulness and sensuality and weaving of life/death/creation."

DANNY BANDIDO, filmmaker

"What an incredible and interesting spotlight on something half the world’s population has for a large part of their lives – the menstrual cycle and the blood of life. Its truly never seen or portrayed or exposed or put a spotlight on."

IRENA ROGOVSKY, artist

"Gets me a little uncomfortable with the bleeding parts but I feel like that is a good thing helping me work through my old programming."

ILA, chinese herbalist + acupuncturist

"... such a beautiful depiction of our cyclical life rhythms. It's a courageous act to register this intimate relationship and make it universal and timeless."

MARI SIERRA, somatic designer & embodiment practitioner

"Wow, truly beautiful. You captured the process and blood quite beautifully, the gold of life, light and love. The emotional built up before the period arrives is also something that every women and their partners deal with. Maybe it's natures way of capturing what goes on in our bodies and transports it to the outer world. Thank you for creating and sharing the flow of life, it makes me feel that we are all connected and although we just exist in our bodies, we are all one."

JULIE HADEM, creative director

"Very generous, very personal and intimate and absolutely lovely to watch! Incredibly visual."

MARC LAFIA, artist + filmmaker

"Wow! Masterpiece! Nothing is superficial. Everything is said. And when there’s silence it is also meaningful. Such a complete work of art, gives tears in the eyes. The music is brilliant, suits the images like a delicate glove."

ESTEBAN WAUTIER, photographer + cinematographer

"It is hypnotic, very beautiful, your body puts itself at the service of nature and the universe and it becomes a very universal "object". You achieve something strong and difficult by making your body something heavenly and earthly. While you are very beautiful and seductive and the female body is still often sexualized, yours in this film is raised to a universal level. It is not "just a beautiful body", it is rather a creation of nature. Like ours and everyone else's. It is also a reminder that we have everything to learn, everything to understand and that life, from this point of view, will always be an initiatory awakening."

LIO SCAILTEUR, film producer

"I was blown away, man & woman. Really impressively beautifully done. Great life message, and picture into the great wide open."

ROBERT DUPPER, cinematographer + editor

"The visuals and camera work were stunning and the poetry is excellent. You are both very courageous and present in your filmmaking in a way that brings the viewer into your world in a palpable way. You have a very rich, impeccable, almost opulent style. I can't wait to see more."

CRAIG MAHAFFY, Director of the Poetic Lens Festival

"Arresting. Rich. Obvious. Melodic. Brave and simple. Gently mighty. Supple. A gloaming. Ordered, refined, considered, sequenced, curated, and still somehow unedited — unabridged. A much needed blossom."

STEPHEN DEBERRY, Community builder

"This is important work for sure to tear down prude limits of what can be shown. I was always a proponent of showing things as they are and using the strongest images to get the message across. You’re doing that, beautifully."

BEN ROTH, founder of Door of Perception

RECOGNITION

AWARD WINNER  – Tokyo International Short Film Festival – 2024
SEMI-FINALIST    – Blow-Up Arthouse Filmfest  Chicago – 2024
BEST WOMEN SHORT – Independent Shorts Awards – 2023 copy
Austin Lift-Off Film Festival – 2024
Poetic Lens International Film Festival – 2024
Hollywood Shorts Fest – 2023

STILLS

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BEHIND THE SCENES

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CREDITS

A Film by Double Being

Produced by Earth Family


POETRY
Marisa Papen

CINEMAPHOTOGRAPHY
Michael Chichi + Marisa Papen

EDITING
Marisa Papen

MUSIC
Michael Chichi

COLOR GRADING
Esteban Wautier

Flow of Life – Film Poster-Nov 2024

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