Abigail Child

Abigail Child (born 1948)^[1] is a poet, director, producer, and writer of a number of films.

Originally, Child worked in San Francisco but moved to New York later in her career.

Academics

In 1968, Abigail Child graduated from Radcliffe College in Harvard University with a degree in history and literature.^[2] She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film.^[3] She has taught at several universities, including New York University, Massachusetts College of Art, and Hampshire College.^[4] She has been the chair of Film and Animation department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 2000^[4] and was appointed to a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.^[2] In 2009, she was awarded the Rome Prize.^[5]

Career in film, writing, and poetry

Abigail Child started making films as a documentarian in the 1970s.^[2] She made seven independent films between 1970 and 1976. By the mid 1970s, Child began making experimental films that explore her interest in the disjunction between sound/image relations. Two of her films from this time, Between Times (1975) and Game (1972) are both award winners. These two films are a part of a series called, Is This What You Were Born For?

Child continued to work with montage through the 1980s.^[6] Her three most well known films from this time include Perils, Mayhem" and "Mercy which were released in 1993 by Women Make Movies and are currently distributed internationally.^[7] These films are included in her series of shorts, Is This What You Were Born For?^[7] Child wrote two books of poetry in the 1980s, which are titled From Solids (Roof Books, 1983) and A Motive for Mayhem (Potes & Poets, 1989).^[4] In 1986 and 1987, Child also created two collages New Modern Times^[8] and The Magician (1986).^[9] In 1987, Child directed Mayhem, a film about lesbianism.^[10]

In the 1990s, Child created films which include B/Side (1996), which was about urban homelessness and Below the New: A Russian Chronicle (1999).^[11][12] She published another two books of collected poetry, Mob (1994) and Scatter Matrix (1996).^[3]

Filmography

• Mayhem (1987)
• B/Side (1997)
• The Future Is Behind You (2004)
• On the Downlow (2007)
• Fucking Different New York (2007)

Publications

• From Solids (Roof Books, 1983)
• A Motive for Mayhem (Potes & Poets, 1989)
• Mob (O Books, 1994)
• Scatter Matrix (Roof Books, 1996)
• Artificial Memor (Belladonna Press, 2001)
• This is Called Moving: A Critical Poetics of Film (University of Alabama Press, 2005)

References

External links

• Official website
• Abigail Child at the Internet Movie Database
• Abigail Child at AllRovi
• Biography at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston