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Great Review in BUST for “Brainwashed”

Thank you Violet Lucca for this wonderful review of “Brainwashed” in the Fall 2022 print edition of BUST.

“(Menkes) calls for a radical reinvention of how shots and film grammar are formulated. Crucially, Menkes’ documentary is not calling for cancellation. Viewers are meant to wrestle with this film, not passively consume a simple message–and they’ll leave invigorated.”

BUST_FILM REVIEW_

BRAINWASHED @ Karlovy Vary INTL FILM FEST

June 20, 2022

We are thrilled that BRAINWASHED has been invited to the fabulous 2022 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, one of the top film fests in Europe! Our festival resume includes:

  • Sundance, USA
  • Berlinale, Germany
  • CPH:DOX, Denmark
  • Karlovy Vary Int’l Film Festival, Czech Republic
  • Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival, Greece
  • Jeonju Int’l Film Festival, Korea
  • Doc Aviv, Israel
  • Frameline Int’l Film Festival, USA
  • Encounters Documentary Film Festival, South Africa
  • Peongchang Int’l Peace Film Festival, Korea
  • Beldocs Int’l Film Festival, Serbia 
  • UnderHill Int’l Film Festival, Montenegro
  • Brussels Int’l Film Festival, Belgium
  • and many more coming soon!

BRAINWASHED @FRAMELINE + More Great Fests Worldwide

May 27, 2022

Honored to be screening BRAINWASHED at the foremost LGBTQ+ Film Festival in the USA- FRAMELINE in San Francisco!!!!! #TheCoastIsQueer #malegaze #breakthespell

Our festival resume is amazing and includes:

•We’re excited that BRAINWASHED continues to screen worldwide! Next month at FRAMELINE! Foremost LGBTQ+FILM FEST  in the USA! Never Straight but Always Forward!• @framelinefest
#FL46 #TheCoastIsQueer #malegaze  ALSO Screening next week at @docaviv @cinephildocs  #BREAKTHESPELL
check out our festivals:
WORLD PREMIERE SUNDANCE: USA
• INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE: BERLINALE: Germany
• CPH:DOX, Denmark
• Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival, Greece
• Beldocs Int’l Film Festival, Serbia
• Jeonju International Film Festival, Korea
• Doc Aviv, Israel
• PyeongChang International Peace Film Festival, Korea
• Encounters Documentary Film Festival, South Africa
AND MANY MORE COMING SOON…For more info please see our dedicated website: www.brainwashedmovie.com

LA RETROSPECTIVE STARTS SATURDAY MARCH 12 @AMERICAN CINEMATHEUE

March 9, 2022

I was happy to have a chance to reflect on my films in this TALKHOUSE piece,

“Visions of the Night”  https://www.talkhouse.com/visions-in-the-night/

In Los Angeles, the retrospective showing almost all my films starts this Saturday March 12th with THE BLOODY CHILD, plus Q and A moderated by Anne Hornaday, film critic for the Washington Post.

Here is the program: https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/nina-menkes-retrospective/

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

 

RETROSPECTIVES in LA and New York IN MARCH

March 5, 2022

Dear Friends,
I’m happy to announce bi-coastal retrospectives of my films!

In NY: BAM (Mar 4 – Mar 10)
and
In LA: The American Cinematheque (Mar 12 – 26)

Showcased films in both NY and LA include
THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA (1983)
MAGDALENA VIRAGA (1986)
QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (1991)
THE BLOODY CHILD (1996)
PHANTOM LOVE (2007) and
DISSOLUTION (2012)
Retrospective Trailer created by Arbelos Films
 As mentioned in IndieWire this week, BAM’s comprehensive retrospectivepresents all new restorations and includes FULL WEEK RUNS of
MAGDALENA VIRAGA (1986, March 4-10)—about an alienated sex worker,
and the 2021 New York Film Festival selection THE BLOODY CHILD (1996, March 4-10), an exploration of the desolation of violence as seen
from the back side of the mind.
Both films star the incredible actress, my sister and long-time filmic collaborator,
TINKA MENKES.

For full details NY-BAM: https://www.bam.org/film/2022/cinema-is-sorcery
~~~
For full details L.A.  https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/nina-menkes-retrospective/

THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE is presenting
single screenings of the films,
at both Los Feliz Theater and on the westside at The Aero!
~~~
MAGDALENA VIRAGA
U.S. Premiere Engagement—New 2K restoration!

BAM: Week-long Engagement March 4-10
LA: American Cinematheque: March 19
Dir: Nina Menkes | 90 min. | United States | 1986
Synopsis: With Tinka Menkes. Shot in the bars and seedy hotels of East LA, this early feature from Menkes explores the inner life of a prostitute imprisoned for killing her pimp. The director’s sister and frequent collaborator Tinka Menkes brilliantly portrays the emotionally frozen protagonist on a circular inner journey, as she battles the walls which surround her—both material and psychic.

New restoration by Arbelos Films and The Academy Film Archive
Co-presented with Eos World Fund
Winner Best Independent Film, Los Angeles Film Critics Association

“I have not been so moved by a film since watching Tarkovsky.”
— Radio France Culture

“Boldly imaginative—Menkes can hold a shot as long as Antonioni and get away with it—MAGDALENA VIRAGA is a stunner!”
— The Los Angeles Times

“A dreamlike blend of brothel, prison cell, and baroque cathedral—the bias is metaphysical, menstrual blood transubstantiated into the blood of the lamb.”
— The Village Voice

“Aspires to a new form of cinema”
— Le Monde

~~~
THE BLOODY CHILD
New 4K restoration!

BAM: Week-long Engagement, March 4-10
LA: American CInematheque, March 12
Chicago: Chicago Filmmakers, April 1
Dir: Nina Menkes | 85 min. | United States | 1996
Synopsis: With Tinka Menkes and Robert Muller. A young US Marine, recently back from the Gulf War, was found digging a grave for his murdered wife in the middle of the California Mojave. Inspired by this real event, Menkes turns the man’s arrest—a single moment in time—into a harrowing hallucinatory journey. Shot in North Africa and 29 Palms, California, THE BLOODY CHILD brings together Marines from Operation Desert Storm, playing themselves, with text from Shakespeare’s MACBETH to create a brutal and profound look
at the desolation of violence.

Restoration by The Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation
Official Selection: The New York Film Festival, 2021

“One of the year’s great films from one of my favorite filmmakers.”
—Gus Van Sant

“Brilliant!… An awe-inspiring, rigorous work of art on the highest level.”
—The Los Angeles Times

“Genuinely visionary… An unabashed work of individual expression, a voyage into the self and the mysterious world outside.”
—The Chicago Tribune
~~~~~~~~~~~

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL THE SCREENINGS
OF ALL THE MOVIES:
NEW YORK: https://www.bam.org/film/2022/cinema-is-sorcery
LOS ANGELES:  https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/nina-menkes-retrospective/

~~~~~~~~~~~

SOME OF OUR GREAT PRESS FOR “Brainwashed”!

BRAINWASHED; SEX-CAMERA-POWER

OFFICIAL SELECTION: SUNDANCE 2022/BERLINALE 2022/CPH:DOX 2022

Running time 107 minutes/color/2022

SELECTION OF OUR GREAT REVIEWS!

 

“Nina Menkes’ eye-opening documentary will forever change how you look at films.”

— INDIEWIRE, Kate Erbland

 

 

“Menkes is a real no-bullshit breath of fresh air. With a torch. And with any luck, she’s heading your way to set fire to something, soon.”

–SCREEN DAILY, Finn Halligan

 

 

“Accessible, engrossing, urgent, and horrifying…It should be shown at film festivals, in classrooms, in boardrooms; It should be projected onto a building and played on a loop in Studio City.”

— THE PLAYLIST, Lena Wilson

 

 

“Nina Menkes is going to change the world…Brainwashed is one of the most important films anyone can watch right now!”  

—JOEY SOLOWAY, Producer/Director/Writer

 

 

“Explosive [and] compelling…“[Menkes] pulls off the tricky balanceof making Brainwashed digestible and illuminating for the casual cinema-goer while being stimulating and paradigm shifting for fellow filmmakers and scholars of film.”

–THE QUEER REVIEW, James Kleinman

 

 

“Menkes gives a persuasive, sometimes nightmarish sense of the leering perspectives found across much visual media….What’s most important is how we can act on [the film’s] prescriptions—if it’s not too late.” 

—THE FILM STAGE, David Katz

 

 

“The disruption of traditional power that “Brainwashed” puts forward to the language of cinema is compelling and progressive; it presents a much needed challenge for all filmmakers to find truer ways to depict who we are as people.” 

—Isaac Chung, Director of MINARI

 

 

“Subversive!…Menkes is not afraid to take on the film canon, and the directors hailed as the gold standard.”

–FILM THREAT, Ray Lobo

 

 

MORE INFORMATION AT www.brainwashedmovie.com

New doc feature ‘BRAINWASHED’ invited to the BERLINALE 2022!

December 25, 2021

SUPER THRILLED TO SHARE THAT OUR NEW FEATURE DOC “BRAINWASHED: SEX CAMERA POWER”  has been invited to the Berlinale 2022 in the Panorama section! This additional accolade, coming after the Sundance invitation, makes us feel that the film, indeed, is carrying a message of international importance. Go Team Brainwashed!

Poster designed by Natalie Gooden