The Bloody Child

Menkes was inspired by a newspaper report from the L.A. Times. A marine kills his wife, buries the corpse in the desert and is arrested there by a military patrol. In what she describes as an ‘archaeology of the male psyche’, the visual symbols only encourage speculation about power relationships and criminal psychology. Nina Menkes (1955) lives in West Hollywood, USA. She has made a series of feature films characterised by an intense use of landscapes and urban terrains, long camera takes and narratives in the form of tableaux that only gradually reveal their full implications and emotionally and sexually charged resonances: Magdalena Viraga (1986), Queen of Diamonds (1991), The Bloody Child (1996). Like a number of contemporary film-makers she has also moved into exploring the possibilities of new media formats (The Crazy Bloody Female Center, 1999 CD-Rom/Labyrinth) and of installations in galleries and museums.