Abigail Child

Directing·Newark, New Jersey, USA

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Abigail Child has been at the forefront of experimental writing and media since the 1980s, having completed more than thirty film and video works and installations, and six books. An acknowledged pioneer in montage, Child’s early film work addressed the interplay be- tween sound and image in the context of resh aping narrative tropes, in a manner that prefigured many contemporary and future media concerns. Her major projects include Is This What You Were Born For?: a 9 year, 7-part work; B/Side: a film that negotiates the politics of internal colonialism in New York City; 8 Million: a collaboration with avant-percussionist Ikue Mori that re- defines the “music video”; The Suburban Trilogy: a modular digi-film that prismatically examines a politics of place and identity; and MirrorWorlds: a multi-screen installation that incorporates parts of Child’s “foreign film” series to explore narrative excess. A new film, A Shape of Error, is constructed as an imaginary ‘home movie’ of the life of Mary Shelley. Child has exhibited worldwide, with retrospectives at Anthology Film Archives (NY), the San Francisco Cinematheque, Sala Trevi in Rome, Exis (Korea), and Harvard Cinematheque, and in important showcases such as The Whitney Biennale, the Viennale and MoMA’s Millenium show. Her work is featured at numerous international film festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Rotterdam, Locarno and London Festivals, among others and is in the permanent collections of MOMA, NY, Centre Pompidou, and Arsenal Berlin. Child has received numerous awards and accolades, including the Rome Prize, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Award and the Stan Brakhage Award. Harvard University Cinematheque has created an Abigail Child Collection dedicated to preserving and exhibiting her work. As a teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Child has been instrumental in building an expansive media and film art program; she has influenced a generation of younger artists. Child is also the author of five books of poetry (A Motive for Mayhem, Scatter Matrix and Artificial Memory among them) and a book of critical writings: THIS IS CALLED MOVING: A Critical Poetics of Film from University of Alabama Press (2005).

Film	Credit
Origin of the Species2020 · Director	Director
BLUE EDIT2020 · Director	Director
La Lucha (The Struggle)2020 · Director	Director
Acts and Intermissions2017 · Director	Director
Salomé2014 · Director	Director
UUnbound2013 · Director	Director
Elsa merdelamerdelamer2013 · Director	Director
Vis à Vis2013 · Director	Director
A Shape of Error2012 · Producer, Director	Producer, Director
Surf + Turf2011 · Director	Director
Riding the Tiger: Letters from Capitalist China2010 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
(If I Can Sing a Song About) Ligatures2009 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
On the Downlow2007 · Director	Director
Fucking Different New York2007 · Director	Director
The Party2007 · Director	Director
Mirror World2006 · Director	Director
To and No Fro2005 · Director	Director
The Future is Behind You2004 · Director	Director
Cake + Steak2004 · Director	Director
SSubtalk2002 · Director	Director
Dark Dark2001 · Director	Director
Surface Noise2000 · Director	Director
Below the New: A Russian Chronicle1999 · Director	Director
B/Side1996 · Director	Director
TThrough the Looking Lass or Snow White1995 · Director	Director
8 Million1992 · Director	Director
Swamp1990 · Director	Director
Mercy1989 · Director	Director
Both1988 · Director	Director
Mayhem1987 · Director	Director
Perils1986 · Director	Director
Covert Action1984 · Director	Director
Mutiny1983 · Director	Director
Prefaces1981 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
Pacific Far East Line1979 · Director	Director
Ornamentals1979 · Director	Director
Peripeteia II1978 · Director	Director
Daylight Test Section1978 · Director	Director
Peripeteia I1977 · Director	Director
Some Exterior Presence1977 · Director	Director
TTar Garden1975 · Director	Director
Game1972 · Director	Director
EExcept for the People1970 · Director	Director
The Suburban TrilogyDirector	Director
Is This What You Were Born For?Director	Director
PPrecipiceDirector	Director