‘Monika Treut’s transgressive brand of filmmaking is a much needed intervention into the arena of sexual politics. Her misbehaving women are a vital form of resistance. — Julia Knight, Sight and Sound.
‘Monika Treut was born in Moenchengladbach, Germany, on April 6, 1954. She studied literature and politics at Philipps-University, Marburg. In the mid-seventies she began working with video. Her PhD thesis The Cruel Woman: Female Images in the Writing of Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was published in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 1984.
‘In the mid-eighties Treut started to write, direct and produce award-winning independent features and documentaries, which screened at numerous film festivals throughout the world and enjoy international distribution. Retrospectives have been held in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Taipei, Toronto, Cambridge, Helsinki, Hamburg, Thessaloniki, Prague, Warsaw, Athens, Los Angeles and Lisbon.
‘Treut’s first feature, co-directed with Elfi Mikesch, was the controversial Seduction: The Cruel Woman,1985, which since has become a cult classic. The black and white coming-out tale Virgin Machine followed in 1988. My Father Is Coming, a comedy of manners set in New York, was released in 1991.
‘In 1992, Treut began directing documentaries including Female Misbehavior, four portraits of bad girls, among them Annie Sprinkle and Camille Paglia; Didn’t Do It For Love in 1997, a portrait of Norwegian-born Eva Norvind, B-movie star in Mexico, later dominatrix in New York; Gendernauts in 1999, about a group portrait of transgendered cyborgs in San Francisco. In 2001 Treut completed Warrior of Light, on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, an internationally renowned artist and human rights activist who works with endangered children in the streets and slums of Rio de Janeiro.
‘Since 2002 Treut is infatuated with Taiwan. There she wrote, directed and co-produced 3 documentaries, Tigerwomen Grow Wings about three generations of women, featuring well-known writer Li Ang, famed opera singer Hsieh Yueh Hsia and young film director DJ Chen. Made in Taiwan, a portrait of a 17-year-old dance student followed in 2005. In 2009 Treut released Ghosted a feature film about an unsual love story between Hamburg and Taipei. Most recently another documentary was finished The Raw and the Cooked, a culinary journey through Taiwan, which aptly premieres at the 2012 Berlin international film festival’s section Culinary Cinema.
‘Since 1990 Treut has also been teaching and lecturing at Colleges (Vassar, Hollins, and Dartmouth), Art Institutes (SFAI) and Universities (IU Bloomington, UI Chicago, UC San Diego and Cornell U) in the U.S. Treut runs the independent film production company, Hyena Films, with offices in Hamburg, Germany.’ — Hyena Films
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Stills
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Further
Monika Treut @ IMDb
Hyena Films . Films by Monika Treut
Monika Treut Film @ Facebook
Monika Treut’s films on Fandor
Monika Treut @ Vimeo
Monika Treut : Die grausame Frau. Zum Frauenbild bei de Sade und Sacher-Masoch
Lesbian Desire Rewrites Venus in Furs
Monika Treut: Female Misbehavior!
Monika Treut’s films on MUBI
Pro-Porn Rhetoric and the Cinema of Monika Treut
Not Enough Body
From Taboo Parlor to Porn and Passing
Interview with Director Monika Treut
IN CONVERSATION WITH MONIKA TREUT
Podcast: A Place For Film: Filmmaker Monika Treut
German director reflects on three decades of lesbian-themed films
Mondo Tranny: Monika Treut’s Gendernauts
Monika Treut captures the power of youth and nature
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Extras
Master Class Monika Treut
Trailer zu Special Teddy Award für Monika Treut – Berlinale 2017
Monika Treut ein Portrait 2005
100 Records – Monika Treut, Jungfrauenmaschine (2009)
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Interview
Filmmaker: So what inspired this latest fiction film? It seems quite a departure from 2012’s The Raw and the Cooked – a doc about Taiwan’s culinary traditions – not to mention from your more radical early films. Do you see a common thread throughout your body of work, or have your interests changed greatly over the years?
Treut: Of Girls and Horses was initiated by my German distribution company, Edition Salzgeber. For a few years now, they have been coproducing LGBT-themed, low-budget features. They give me free reign in everything. At first I wanted to stay away from the idea, since I clearly have had many experiences making low and no-budget features. But then I remembered my love for horses, which started in my childhood and teenage years when I was a tomboyish “horsegirl” spending all my afternoons in the stable. I’ve always wanted to convey the attraction to these powerful animals in a movie. At this point in my life I also longed for a change of scenery – getting out of the cities, away from the ubiquitous screens and digital devices, and the overflow of information. When I found the location, the horse and cattle farm in the middle of nowhere in Northern Germany, I was smitten by being able to spend a fair amount of time up there, with little internet access, just surrounded by animals and nature and the relaxed farmers.
The common thread of my films so far? Well, it was possibly the difficulty to get them financed, and the small budgets, which came out as a result. Each of the films was met with skepticism by the funding bodies, not so uncommon for female filmmakers. So I produced most of them myself through my production company Hyena Films. The subjects of the films have always been closely connected to the changes in my life.
Filmmaker: When it comes to filmmaking you’re a “switch hitter” like your fellow countryman Werner Herzog. You seem at ease moving between the worlds of fiction and nonfiction. Do you use specific skills for each form? Or is your working method more like the Danes, who are trained not to separate doc from narrative – to just shoot movies?
Treut: I like switching between the two to ease the pain. In fiction the shoot is nervewracking but postproduction is heaven – and with documentaries it’s the opposite. But really, I believe working in both forms is inspiring – to allow for real life to intrude into fiction, to be open for happy accidents, to leave space for actors to improvise. Whereas in documentary filmmaking I believe it’s helpful to work with a strong narrative structure, especially during the editing process.
Filmmaker: Since you’re an artist who’s worked in both Germany and the U.S., I’m curious to hear what you think are the biggest differences between the two countries. I know several filmmakers who’ve moved to Berlin in recent years, finding the city more conducive to creativity I suppose.
Treut: Often it seems that one’s creativity is helped by being in a foreign environment, and therefore losing one’s sense of security. In Germany it’s easier to find public funding for art and film projects. In the U.S. there’s more support from the actual filmmaking community. But the latter might just be my personal experience.
Filmmaker: I find it pretty mind-blowing that your feature film debut Seduction: The Cruel Woman and documentary Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities were released in 1985 and 1999, respectively. I mean, it took literally decades for the culture to catch up with you. So now that we’re in the age of 50 Shades and Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair, what are your thoughts on the mainstreaming of both BDSM and gender nonconformity?
Treut: I’m all for equal human rights, and I’m happy that the U.S. and Western Europe slowly seem to be coming to a better understanding of trans people. But of course there are still huge problems, not even mentioning the grim situation in most areas of our planet. I can’t say much about Caitlyn Jenner. Her story is small news on the other side of the Atlantic. I understand that in the U.S she’s big news since she was an American celebrity as Bruce Jenner. If this helps to raise people’s consciousness about the terrible binary gender prison that’s great. But as for 50 Shades, I doubt that mainstream attention is able to change people’s attitude on a deeper level.
Filmmaker: Back when I was growing up genderqueer I didn’t have a word for what I felt. I also didn’t know why I was so strongly drawn to the world of S&M. But looking back I realize that above all BDSM allowed me to exist in a genderless space. It’s all tops and bottoms and switches in that community – i.e., you’re defined by your power preference, not by male/female or even necessarily gay/straight. Have you long seen a link between sadomasochism and personal identity?
Treut: I think that was also partly my attraction to the world of S&M in my early years, the playfulness and the irony of gender and power roles. Other than that I was attracted by the power the classic S&M scene gives to women, following the literary sources like Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novels, foremost Venus in Furs. And of course the fantastic world of fetishes – costumes, whips, boots, wigs. I believe I’ve learned a lot through communicating intensely with the subjects of my documentary films. Like with Eva Norvind, the subject of my documentary Didn’t Do It For Love, a former dominatrix who changed her identity many times throughout her turbulent life.
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11 of Monika Treut’s 19 films
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The Virgin Machine (1988)
‘Young Hamburg journalist Dorothee Müller is fed up with her persistent lover, Heinz. A complete ingénue, she innocently embarks upon an exploration of romantic love – is it merely a ‘woman’s malady’? The places where she undertakes this research include a pleasure-addicted hormone researcher’s practice and the monkey house at the zoo. Unable to find any satisfactory answers, Dorothee decides to leave Europe and head for California where she continues her research by conducting interviews and some personal explorations. In swinging San Francisco she meets three remarkable women: a cheeky Hungarian named Dominique who sneers at the German work ethic and offers to help Dorothee in her research; Susie Sexpert, a specialist in sexual pleasures who has an astonishing collection of dildos, and finally the attractive Ramona, who performs a hot strip as a drag king in a lesbian bar. By the end of her journey Dorothee has rediscovered her own sexuality and put several illusions firmly behind her.’ — Berlinale
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My Father Is Coming (1991)
‘Treut – a German director whose sex-pol essays like Virgin Machine and Seduction: the Cruel Woman have earned plenty of controversy and cult acclaim – here spins a tale of sexual awakening, presided over with ecstasy-aunt jollity by ‘post-porn sex goddess’ Sprinkle. Vicki (Kästner) is a sexually confused actress holding down a waitress job, and trying to persuade her visiting Bavarian papa (the marvellously shambling Edel) that she’s happily married, although her ‘husband’ is fully occupied with vogueing Latin boys. Happily, La Sprinkle is on hand to distract papa with tender mercies and household appliances while Vicki makes her mark as a nightclub diva. A low-rent, loosely structured lesbian coming-out story that entertains a range of sexual orientations, Treut’s film enshrines an engaging worldview – SoHo chic seen from a sort of polysexual Teutonic ‘Carry On’ perspective.’ — Time Out (NYC)
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Female Misbehavior (1992)
‘Female Misbehavior is a collection of five films that explore the outer limits of female sexuality and behavior. Each film features a woman who has challenged the status quo, provoking shock and outrage in some and gaining respect and admiration from others. Annie is an inside look (in more ways than one) at Annie Sprinkle, porn-star, performance artist and sexual diva. Dr. Paglia is a confrontation with Camille Paglia, the infamous author. Bondage centers on an S&M practitioner and her use of pain as pleasure. Max is the story of a transsexual’s journey from female to male. And the feature length Didn’t Do It For Love explores the fascinating life of Eva Norvind, the blond Norwegian bombshell who was Mexico’s Marilyn Monroe in the 1960’s and New York’s leading dominatrix in the 1980’s.’ — collaged
Trailer
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Danish Girls Show Everything (1996)
‘This Danish omnibus film consists of 20 shorts, by a bevy of international directors; the project as a whole was conceived by Danish visual artist Ane Mette Ruge and Dutch opera-director Jacob F. Schokking. The title represents a pun; in addition to its obvious sensationalistic implications (which is used ironically – almost nothing in the film, aside from some incidental nudity, is exploitative), the “everything” refers to the plethora of subjects at hand, with the filmmakers exploring topics from national identity to ornithology, to trips abroad to Vietnam and Brazil, to the history of Berlin’ — filmaffinity
the entire film
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Didn’t Do It for Love (1997)
‘DIDN’T DO IT FOR LOVE is a documentary portrait of Eva Norvind, a.k.a. Mistress Ava Taurel, born Eva Johanne Chegodaieva Sakonskaya in Trondheim, Norway. The film follows Eva’s many careers, from her time as a showgirl in Paris to becoming Mexico’s Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s to establishing herself as New York’s most famous dominatrix in the 1980s. Using clips from Norvind’s Mexican films, stills from various periods, and interviews with friends, partners and family, Treut’s documentary traces Eva’s search for the wellspring of her obsessive and dark sexuality.’ — gd.de
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Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities (1999)
‘GENDERNAUTS explores phenomena of gender fluidity at the end of the last millennium in the Bay Area, California. It is a film about cyborgs, people who alter their bodies and minds with new technologies and chemistry, with an emphasis on biological women who use the male sexual hormone testosterone. Max Wolf Valerio, San Francisco’s leading gender mixer, who reads from his book, Max, A Man; Jordy Jones with his Net art; Texas Tomboy with his video art; Stafford, who explores new business venues and, together with Jordy Jones, organizes ‘Club Confidential’, the world’s leading gender bender event. And there’s Hida, an intersexual woman who happily inhabits the middle ground between male and female; and two extraordinary biological women who support transgender people: sex goddess Annie Sprinkle and ex-centrefold model Tornado, who was Stafford’s lover and is the self-proclaimed mother of Texas Tomboy. Excursions are made into the life of the spotted hyena, a very special animal society. The female hyena has an enlarged clitoris that looks like a penis. Her bloodstream carries a large amount of testosterone, especially when she’s pregnant. The tour guide for this journey through shifting gender identities is Sandy Stone, also known as the ‘Goddess of Cyberspace’, who is the Director of the ACTLab at the University of Texas at Austin. Director Monika Treut is a member of this year’s Joris Ivens jury.’ — idfa.nl
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Warrior of Light (2001)
‘WARRIOR OF LIGHT shot on location in Brazil is a feature-length documentary on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, award-winning artist and human-rights activist who has gained international recognition for her work with street children in Rio. The film recounts how a woman turned her back on a wealthy lifestyle, driven into action by the execution of 8 streetkids by military police in 1993. In subsequent years Yvonne’s struggle to better the lives of endangered and abandoned children has led her to found Projeto Uere (Children of Light) a radical project committed to protection and education of kids who live in the streets and slums of Rio which has brought her into conflict with Brazil’s wealthy elite.’ — Hyena Films
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Ghosted (2009)
‘An unusual love story that bridges two worlds. Artist Sophie Schmitt travels from Hamburg to Taipei to come to terms with the sudden and unexplained death of her Taiwanese lover Ai-ling. There, Sophie is pursued by a pushy journalist who seems obsessed with Ai-Ling´s fate. A series of strange happenings unsettle Sophie until she manages to demystify her perception.’ — m-appeal
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The Raw And The Cooked (2012)
‘tHE rAw AND tHE cookED is a culinary journey around the gourmet’s paradise, tai- wan. the film makes seven stops along the way. In the island’s capital, taipei, we visit a traditional taiwanese restaurant, a legendary dim-sum palace, and one of the city’s lively night markets. Next, we encounter the hearty cuisine of the Hakka, taiwan’s largest ethnic community; we’re introduced to the pure and delicious seafood specialties of the Ami indigenous tribe; and we get a glimpse of the Buddhist influences on taiwanese cuisine. Finally, we are invited to a banquet by one of the island’s most creative chefs. combining traditional cuisine and best organic ingredients, he weaves a culinary magic to create spectacular and novel dishes.’ — Hyena Films
Trailer
Monika Treut ‘The Raw And The Cooked’ Interview
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Of Girls and Horses (2014)
‘Girls love horses, according to Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, because they identify with their strength. They are, Orenstein explained, in a NPR segment, a source of “power and motion and transformation.” This sense of transformation is what Monika Treut harnesses in her new film, Of Girls and Horses. Of Girls and Horses is a departure from the earlier work that put Treut on the queer map—I mean, I still giggle nervously when I think about her 1992 documentary Female Misbehavior with Camille Paglia. This film turns toward youth, toward innocence, beauty and power as they exist in nature. Some moments linger too long in the heaviness of metaphor, and some parts of the narrative, particularly Nina’s story about her relationship with her partner, feel disconnected from the primary plot. Yet Treut is asking the viewer to sit, rest and take in the energy around them—it is the same task demanded of Alex. This injunction is subtle and startling, just like the vital energy of girls, and of horses.’ — afterellen
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Zona Norte (2016)
’15 years after our award-winning documentary WARRIOR OF LIGHT, the portrait of internationally acclaimed human rights activist Yvonne Bezerra de Mello and her work with street kids in Rio, ZONA NORTE is investigating the development and sustainability of the project. Over the years, Yvonne has developed a new pedagogy that helps children who are traumatized by violence to overcome their experiences and the resulting learning problems. The children we portrayed 15 years ago are now young adults. They report from their lives in the most dangerous favela in the north of the city. They are the living proof that an alternative pedagogy is capable to break the vicious circle of poverty and violence.’ — z-n
Trailer
Interview with MonikaTreut about “Zona Norte”
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p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi! It’s 2019. What the hell happened?! Marc Almond is playing here soonish. I’ve never seen him live for some weird reason. I should go, right? Seems like it. Excellent about the zine class. seems great. You’re on fire, bud. ** David Ehrenstein, Good question. I’m sure you and he could work something out. Rex Reed doing cabaret? I mean, what would that entail. He sings? ** Dominik, A very happy beginning of 2019 to you, maestro! ** alex, Hi! Every time I put together those slaves posts, the prospect of a life term in prison starts to have a certain je ne sais quoi. *ha ha, wink, elbow in the ribs, etc.* In turn, thank you for making the doing of this blog a doable deal, and for typing bits of you to me. You looked up Nature Boy! Yeah, lake face, yeah, totally. Big love to you, Alex, and may this year award you all kinds of crazily sublime stuff. ** Keatonback, I slept through it. Conked out at 11 pm, as usual. So it was mind blowing in its own mellow way. Hope yours pushed some limits or other. Book by you, love by and for you, Italy, friends! Your year takes the cake theoretically. I can’t remember the last time I saw a death metal singer in the real world unless Attila counts. ** Natty, Natty! Hey, pal. You’re the veritable sight for sore eyes. Well, I, of course, second your trip to Paris prospect, and I’ll buy you dessert. It is a weird world, that’s for sure. Maybe slightly less so over here in Paris where a free dessert and warm company awaits you. Do finish your second novel. It would be such a boon for those of us who are tenably deprived of your marvelous wordage, and, let’s face it, the world could definitely use a boon. So good to see you, maestro! Love, me. ** Misanthrope, HNY! It has been 2019 here for 9 or something hours now. I’m down for an excitable year. I’m on the case. Okay, interesting, your premise. Like ‘CMBYN’ goes to hell in a hand basket? It sounds big in your description. It has a whiff of ‘classic’ smushed all over it. Nice, man. ** Steve Erickson, Bon 2019! I stayed in. One couldn’t really ‘stay in’ more than I stayed in. I look at Letterboxd all the time. It’s quite helpful when making film posts, for one thing. I should know this, but what does the ‘d’ stand for? Everyone, Steve starts your New Year with this alert: ‘I know how narcissistic this is, but I’ve started a page on Letterboxd (more or less, Goodreads for cinephiles), where I will list the films I see (I began with the film I saw yesterday), do brief comments on those I don’t review and post links to my reviews. Here’s the link, for anyone who wants to follow it.’ I’ve heard of Sneaks but that’s all. I’ll fill in that word’s blankness. ** JM, Hey, happy start to the best year ever, man! I’m recovering from my NYE celebration which means drinking coffee to wake up from a peaceful 8 hour snooze. All of Stephen King’s books? I mean, aren’t there, like, 1000s of them or something? I only read two: ‘Cujo’ and … I forget the other one. Things are good here. Getting ready to work on stuff and organising ‘PGL’ roll-out stuff, and essentially continuing on the same old but ever freshening track. ** Sypha, I think you being snarky about my Marilyn Manson anecdote is what gave you that cold, ha ha. Just a theory, mind you. ** h, Welcome back and a happy year with a new fourth number! New Years is zip to me. The change barely even registers, so I get it. Enjoy your wintery city, and I’ll do the same with mine. ** Okay. The new year begins with an outlay of the films of Monika Treut for no particular reason. Check it. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi!!
Thank you! And to go back to your previous letter: that makes two of us, I don’t like NYE and the whole you-must-party attitude towards it either. I quietly free-styled myself into the new year with Anita and – apart from my poor, terrified, sedated dog pissing literally EVERYWHERE in the house – it was perfect like that.
It’s so great that the script is finally out of your hands, at least for the moment! And wow, the new film script is in such an advanced stage already?! I somehow missed this though I’m sure we talked about it before!
Uhm… okay, haha. I mean, it’s really funny that Manson’s name is basically synonymous with “shocking” and “hardcore” and he refused to let you write the cover story. I enjoyed his autobiography but more like a psychological study instead of an actual life story. It’s not really a coherent thing but a collection of these islands of experiences and memories which all point to the same general direction, namely him being the “disturbed individual” he is. Sometimes I had the feeling that I was reading excuses and furious explanations which were meant to show the reader how he basically had no other option but to become who he is. And I mean, it’s perfectly okay, but we don’t get to see the whole picture, everything’s neatly organized to show and prove and explain the same thing and nothing else. Lots of the scenes were shocking and brutal but they also somehow lacked a kind of depth and context. So I had this… “where’s the other half of the story” feeling when I finished it.
After reading today’s post, I can’t believe I’ve never run into the name of Monika Treut. Most of her subjects are so close to me! Which of her movies have you seen? I’m especially interested in ‘Gendernauts’ and ‘The Cruel Woman’, though ‘Female Misbehavior’, ‘Didn’t Do It for Love’ and ‘Warrior of Light’ are heavily on the list too. Looks like it’s really hard to find anything by her online, though.
Do you have any special plans for the week? I’m going back to work tomorrow but it’s only for 4 hours a day from now on so I’m not that very depressed about it.
Have an amazing day, Dennis!!
Monika is a marvelous filmmaker and a really teriffic woman who I’ve known personally for a good many years. For those of you trying to grapple with transgender issues and ideas I highly recommend her film “Genderauts” which might be likened to cannonballing into the deep end of the subject.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!
Dennis, Happy New Year! Again. Yes, it’s an excitable time. We do live in interesting times, I think, and I also think that’s ripe for great things and great Art. But me, I’m the eternal optimist. It’s always good, in my opinion, to have something to fight against.
Well, the whole CMBYN thing in regards to this thing I’m doing is two-fold:
1. You’ve read a lot of my stories and such, and I’ve never done anything in regards to a younger-older theme.
2. Before I saw the movie or read the book, I’d been thinking a lot about lies of omission. There’s a theme of that in the book/movie, and it kind of spurred me on to address it finally in something I write. Just things that had been happening in my life, minor things that had impact and made me think a lot about he we go about our day to day in regards to each other and our friendships and relationships.
And yes, this story does turn out differently and it’s because of all the things I talked about yesterday. There’s no happy ending, but I don’t think it’s a sad ending either. It’s an inevitable ending, especially with the way we -and almost all these characters, save two- restrain themselves in their dealings with each other.
I’m off today. New year’s day holiday. Back to the grind tomorrow.
Oh, and you might find this interesting. So because I’m “excepted” for this shutdown, I have to go into the office (because I have a desktop there and not a laptop). There’s no heat in the buildings. The food places are all shut down. Even though I have an official ID, I have to sign in every day. Only one entrance to the buildings is open. A real pain in the ass. Very bare bones all the way around, almost as if we “excepted” people are being punished. I’m using a space heater a co-worker let me borrow. (She’s a regular fed employee with a laptop and can work from home.) But at least I’m working and will be getting paid. (Our contract is paid up through April.)
Dennis, forgive me if my comment yesterday sounded snarky, I was just aiming for levity and I guess it didn’t translate. As you know I’ve been here awhile and as a result I’ve seen certain of your stories/anecdotes/bon mots multiple times, which I really enjoy… like running into an old friend whom one hasn’t seen in some time, if that makes sense. Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence and all that… nah, I think the cold is Divine Punishment; been spending too much time recently on Pinterest going through “dodgy” pictures, ha ha (a joke I made to Misa once: I showed him an e-mail Pinterest sent to me where they selected boards they thought I would like and I told him, “I think Pinterest is trying to get me sent to jail!”)
Finished the first draft recently of a story I plan to contribute to Snuggly’s next Neo-Decadent anthology (which will be food-themed). It’s about Alfred Hitchcock and I named it “The Murder Mystery” (after the VU song). The research for it was pretty sound but I threw in some misinformation as well: I don’t think it likely that Hitchcock ever listened to the third VU album (or any VU album for that matter).
I’ll be sending you HARLEM SMOKE Day soon… maybe later today or tomorrow or the weekend at the latest.
Happy New Year!
I’m still at home in Leeds, and going out to see my dad on the stroke ward of the hospital each day. He’s figured out a way to make the food more bearable, and that’s to ask for a kosher menu and just order his meals off that. Apparently the standards are way higher and the portions are bigger too. He’s still fairly weak and set to stay in there for at least another week, but he’s in good spirits and in far better shape than the other guys around him.
I had an idea for the zine project I’ll be starting on in January and that’s to pursue a horror theme, with artists and writers interviewed about how it relates to their creative process. Maybe call it Powers of Horror after Julia Kristeva? I dunno, I’ve never read the whole essay so would need to order the book first, just in case I end up looking like a poser haha.
Haven’t thought of Monika Treut in ages; good to see she’s still making interesting work.
The slaves were a fine way to send off 2018, Dennis.
Things have been a bit stressful on this latest mysterious oriental foray. I think it’s mostly under control, and I will probably check out a noise gig tonight.
Bill
i have not been listening to much music or movieying lately. i will get back to this soon.
attila counts for sure, haha. my new year was basically watching and listening to a thousand fireworks and then i was at work all night they all went silent after midnight. the morning time felt like a quiet warzone, everything smelled like spent fireworks. so crazy you sleep so much and dont dream. makes me think your lucid in your waking hours. thought of your and zach the other day watching the first or second friday the 13th. i was watching the angles, like i can do this film stuff. camera stuff gets insane in really high budget movies, its like one of those people that moves around a lot when youre having sex. just watched this cnn thing that went from the 60s through the 2000s about music it started off more about everything then it was just music it made me horribly depressed. this year is going to one worth remembering for all the right reasons. my move to florida has been a downer in a lot of ways but that was the intention. now im going to make it all pick up. only a few years left to make memories. i swear i smell the family cough. hopefully im wrong. heres to you and to the blog and to movies and 2019
I hadn’t thought about the “d” in Letterboxd not making literal sense until you brought it up. Maybe there was another website called Letterbox or some copyright-related reason they couldn’t just call it by that name?
2018 felt like a year that was out to drive everyone insane. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but one of my plans for 2019 is to spend less time on social media. Who thought the culture would get to a point where spending more time watching TV felt healthier than engaging in the Internet’s initial premise of interacting with strangers who didn’t necessarily share our political or cultural views?
there are something like 1000s . i kind of like cujo n it’s brute force horror. woof. hope all is well with you ☮️
What excellent timing. My Black Friday TV splurge purchase is arriving today, so I’ll be re-acquainting myself with cinema. I recently watched Black Mirror’s “Bandersnatch” choose-your-own adventure on Netflix. I think there’s a lot more they could’ve done with the format but I still thought you still might be interested given the tech innovation and put-viewer-into-head-of-deranged-teenager concept.
In other news, I’ve convinced myself that even in 2019 zombo.com remains a metaphor for the entire internet and the entire internet remains a metaphor for zombo.com. I have great confidence that believing this will make for a better year.