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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

WORLD PREMIERE OF ‘THE BLOODY CHILD’ @NYFF 2021!!!

October 12, 2021


It was a stunning experience to present “THE BLOODY CHILD” at Lincoln Center in NYC for the 2021 New York Film Festival. Great Gratitude to Mark Toscano at the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation for their immaculate restoration of this work, to distributors Arbelos Films, to programmers Dennis Lim, Florence Almozini and Dan Sullivan.  “The film is as radical today as when it was made…Menkes is one of America’s most important film directors.”— Dennis Lim, October 2021.