NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN
Dir. Martina Kudláček, 2006
USA, 97 min.

Screening with ARABESQUE FOR KENNETH ANGER (Marie Menken, 1961, 5 min.)

MONDAY, MARCH 3 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, MARCH 16 – 5:00 PM
FRIDAY, MARCH 28 – 7:30 PM

Special thanks to Icarus Films.

Martina Kudlácek, director of the critically acclaimed IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN brings us the story of Marie Menken (1909-1970), one of New York’s outstanding underground filmmakers, who inspired and worked with renowned artists Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger and Gerard Malanga, and became known as “the mother of the avant-garde.”

Originally an abstract painter and collage artist, Menken produced nearly two dozen experimental shorts, gracefully using a hand-held Bolex camera to create rhythmic patterns of light, color, form and texture, and compose exquisite visual poems. Rich in excerpts of Menken’s work, the film also features the rare and fascinating footage of “The Duel of the Bolexes” she conducted with Andy Warhol on a New York rooftop.

The large, loud and tempestuous Menken, whose volatile relationship with husband Willard Maas reportedly inspired Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, became a Warhol superstar making memorable appearances in THE LIFE OF JUANITA CASTRO and THE CHELSEA GIRLS.

Featuring interviews with Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger, Gerard Malanga, Peter Kubelka, Alfred Leslie, Billy Name, and THE CHELSEA GIRLS star Mary Woronov, and music by John Zorn.

Text courtesy of Icarus Films.