Abigail Child

Biography

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 …

Directed

1. Mayhem (1987) — Director
2. Mercy (1989) — Director
3. Fucking Different New York (2007) — Director
4. On the Downlow (2007) — Director
5. Prefaces (1981) — Director
6. Perils (1986) — Director
7. Mutiny (1983) — Director
8. B/Side (1996) — Director
9. Origin of the Species (2020) — Director
10. BLUE EDIT (2020) — Director
11. Peripeteia I (1977) — Director
12. Peripeteia II (1978) — Director
13. Surface Noise (2000) — Director
14. Except for the People (1970) — Director
15. A Shape of Error (2012) — Director
16. Unbound (2013) — Director
17. Covert Action (1984) — Director
18. Acts and Intermissions (2017) — Director
19. Both (1988) — Director
20. Elsa merdelamerdelamer (2013) — Director
21. The Suburban Trilogy — Director
22. Game (1972) — Director
23. Some Exterior Presence (1977) — Director
24. Daylight Test Section (1978) — Director
25. Vis à Vis (2013) — Director
26. Swamp (1990) — Director
27. Is This What You Were Born For? — Director
28. (If I Can Sing a Song About) Ligatures (2009) — Director
29. Mirror World (2006) — Director
30. To and No Fro (2005) — Director
31. Salomé (2014) — Director
32. Pacific Far East Line (1979) — Director
33. Ornamentals (1979) — Director
34. Riding the Tiger: Letters from Capitalist China (2010) — Director
35. 8 Million (1992) — Director
36. Dark Dark (2001) — Director
37. Cake + Steak (2004) — Director
38. The Future is Behind You (2004) — Director
39. Surf + Turf (2011) — Director
40. Below the New: A Russian Chronicle (1999) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Cinexpérimentaux 14 : Rencontre avec Abigail Child
2. Radio Adios (1982)