Nook NotesPick a film
Abigail Child

Director

Abigail Child

46 films

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.

Read more

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).

Filmography

46 films as director
  1. TBAThe Suburban TrilogyDirector
  2. TBAIs This What You Were Born For?Director
  3. TBAPrecipiceDirector
  4. 2020Origin of the SpeciesDirector
  5. 2020BLUE EDITDirector
  6. 2020La Lucha (The Struggle)Director
  7. 2017Acts and IntermissionsDirector
  8. 2014SaloméDirector
  9. 2013UnboundDirector
  10. 2013Elsa merdelamerdelamerDirector
  11. 2013Vis à VisDirector
  12. 2012A Shape of ErrorDirector
  13. 2011Surf + TurfDirector
  14. 2010Riding the Tiger: Letters from Capitalist ChinaDirector
  15. 2009(If I Can Sing a Song About) LigaturesDirector
  16. 2007On the DownlowDirector
  17. 2007Fucking Different New YorkDirector
  18. 2007The PartyDirector
  19. 2006Mirror WorldDirector
  20. 2005To and No FroDirector
  21. 2004The Future is Behind YouDirector
  22. 2004Cake + SteakDirector
  23. 2002SubtalkDirector
  24. 2001Dark DarkDirector
  25. 2000Surface NoiseDirector
  26. 1999Below the New: A Russian ChronicleDirector
  27. 1996B/SideDirector
  28. 1995Through the Looking Lass or Snow WhiteDirector
  29. 19928 MillionDirector
  30. 1990SwampDirector
  31. 1989MercyDirector
  32. 1988BothDirector
  33. 1987MayhemDirector
  34. 1986PerilsDirector
  35. 1984Covert ActionDirector
  36. 1983MutinyDirector
  37. 1981PrefacesDirector
  38. 1979Pacific Far East LineDirector
  39. 1979OrnamentalsDirector
  40. 1978Peripeteia IIDirector
  41. 1978Daylight Test SectionDirector
  42. 1977Peripeteia IDirector
  43. 1977Some Exterior PresenceDirector
  44. 1975Tar GardenDirector
  45. 1972GameDirector
  46. 1970Except for the PeopleDirector