Nina Menkes

Artist Biography

Named "One of the most provocative artists in film today" by The Los Angeles Times, Nina Menkes synthesizes inner dream worlds with harsh, outer realities. Her five films--( three full length features)--are a body of work Sight and Sound has called "Controversial, intense and visually stunning." Menkes works closely with her sister, Tinka Menkes, who is both lead performer and creative collaborator. Their films have shown widely in major international film festivals including Toronto, Rotterdam, Locarno, London, Sundance, Cairo, as well as at the Cinematheque Francaise, The British Film Institute, the Beijing Film Academy in China, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The sisters' many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, an Annenberg Foundation Independent Media Grant, an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award and s Fulbright Research Award to the Middle East/North Africa.

Most recently Menkes won a 1998 Film/Video Award from the Rockefeller Foundation for her new script HEATSTROKE. This new feature is being executive produced by Gus Van Sant and is scheduled to be shot in Los Angeles, California and Cairo, Egypt.

Nina Menkes teaches directing at California Institute of the Arts.

THE BLOODY CHILD (96), shot in northwestern Africa and 29 Palms, California, combines Desert Storm marines, text from Shakespeare's MacBeth and wife-murder into a harrowing hallucinatory journey: a mesmerizing look at the desolation of violence. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "Brilliant...an awe-inspiring work of art on the highest level; one of the year's top five films."

QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (91) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in competition. Filmed on location in Las Vegas, QUEEN revolves around the life of an alienated black jack dealer and was named one of the 10 Best Films of 1991 by the Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Art Papers, and other periodicals.

MAGDALENA VIRAGA (86) about the inner life of a prostitute imprisoned for killing her-pimp, won the Los Angles Film Critics Association Award for "Best Independent Film of the Year", and was featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial.

THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA(83) was shot on location in Israel and Morocco. The film traces the solitary, mystical journey of a Jewish girl who leaves Israel for Arab lands. ZOHARA won awards at the San Francisco and Houston International Film Festivals and was named "One of the Best Films of the Decade" by director Allison Anders.

Order Nina Menkes' films on video from Facets Multimedia:
milos@facets.org

Read more about Nina Menkes as a Rockefeller Fellow: www.rockmediafellows.org

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