Cascadia Poetics LAB
Poetry Postcard Fest
Watershed Press
Cascadian Prophets Podcast
Cascadia Poetry Festival 8

Interview with Brainwashed Director Nina Menkes

November 8, 2022
Ryukan

Why are only 8% of Hollywood movies produced by women, down from 9% 20 years ago? One Hollywood film-maker says the “male gaze” reinforced by a camera angle formula and a subject-object dynamic creates an industry rife with employment discrimination and sexual abuse and assault. That film-maker is Nina Menkes, the Producer and Director of Brainwashed: Sex Camera Power. The movie is showing now in select theaters and it is both disturbing and compelling, as well as uplifting.

Called “Brilliant, one of the most provocative artists in film today,” by The L.A. Times, and a “Cinematic Sorceress” by The New York Times, Menkes’ films synthesize inner dreamworlds with brutal outer realities. Her work has shown widely in major international film festivals, including Sundance, the Berlinale and Toronto and New York Film Festivals.

It a pleasure to chat with Nina Menkes, who loved my depiction of her cinematic argument as having been conducted with “litigious zeal.” Listen to the latest Cascadian Prophets podcast below.

2 Comments

  1. Daniel L. Smith

    Great interview, Paul! Studying film as a male undergrad, I nonetheless made the connection between flesh and film in part because of the female instructor’s insistence, and a mutual, comprehensive limerence, and her encouragement of my tender, young, immature writing. We also studied in those troubled late sixties essays like “Student as Nigger” and others ignorant of the “visual rhetoric” of discrimination and abuse that markedly changed me and so many others. . .forever walking away from film in 1969.

  2. Shawna Swetech

    I hadn’t heard of this movie before, and can’t wait until it premieres in my area. Thank you for this great interview, Paul.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

dashed cool colors line

You May Also Like

Thank You 4Culture

Thank You 4Culture

Cascadia Poetics LAB Expresses Appreciation to 4Culture for Doors Open Sustained Support Funding Grant “It’s a home run for culture in this country….This is going to be completely transformational, as Washington DC continues to slide into chaos, King County is taking...

Upcoming Winter in America (Again Events!

Upcoming Winter in America (Again Events!

Join us for upcoming Winter in America (Again events in Cascadia and beyond!  Inter Act Spoken Word Open Mic  Inter Act Spoken Word Open Mic at Satori Arts815 Almar Ave Unit 9, Santa Cruz, CA 95060APRIL 15, 2025. 7- 9 PM PST. Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Veronica...

Launch Party for The Outside by Matt Trease

Launch Party for The Outside by Matt Trease, Hosted by the Theosophical Society Seattle Library  Join us on April 12, 2025 at 5 P.M. PST at the Theosophical Society Library (717 Broadway E) as Venus gets ready to go direct in Pisces for a special release reading of...