Karina Astrup is an indie documentary film producer from House of Gary. She has teamed up with a duo of talented women from Melbourne, Australia — Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess — to produce Morgana, a documentary film about a troubled 50 year old housewife who re-invents herself as a BDSM-loving feminist porn star after spending 20 years in a loveless, sexless marriage. It is very rare to see lead characters over the age of 50, and Morgana provides a refreshing and unique perspective.
Her previous project Despite the Gods, about Jennifer Lynch making a horror film in India, premiered at Hot Docs, Chicago, Fantasia, Sitges, Sydney, Stockholm, LA Femme Fest, eventually traveling to over 40 Festivals around the world, and winning “Best Documentary”, “Best Director” and “Best Comedy” Awards.
Click here to learn more and support this project on Kickstarter.
Official synopsis
Stuck in the suburbs of rural Australia, Morgana is an eccentric woman who struggles to fit into her role as a dutiful housewife and mother. After significant weight gain, she is ridiculed and ignored by her husband and loses her desired status as a ‘trophy wife’. At the age of 47 she finally gets a divorce, but is cast out by her conservative community and left completely alone to drift nameless and stateless.
Desperately in need of touch and human contact, Morgana hires a male sex worker for one ‘last hurrah’ before ending it all.
After 15 years of loneliness and sexual isolation within her marriage, the encounter ignites a spark within her and she takes control of her life and begins the process of re-constructing her identity.
After hearing about a competition for first time erotic film makers, Morgana feels compelled to make a film about her own story. The film ‘Duty-Bound’, which she directs and stars in, is about leaving her marriage and the first night she spent with the male escort. Unexpectedly, the film wins an award at a European film festival for first time pornographers, catapulting Morgana into a new world of sexual diversity and feminist porn.
Moving to Berlin to be with her newfound community, life merges with art as Morgana uses erotic filmmaking as a tool for creative catharsis and personal re-invention, while still struggling with real world issues and hereditary depression.
Is Berlin the key to finding her happiness, or will the threads that connect her to Australia be too strong to break?
