Abigail Child is a film and video maker whose work in montage and sound/image relations pushes the envelope of film/video with humor and ephemeral beauty. Her recent work explores mixed genres and strategies for rewriting narrative, as well as exploring public space through memory and history. Child began filmmaking in 1970 as a documentarian, producing seven independent 16mm documentaries between 1970 and 1976, among them the award winning Game (1972) and Between Times (1975). In the mid 70s, Child began to produce experimental work, culminating in her series Is This What You Were Born For?, which included the films Prefaces (1981), Mutiny (1983), Both (1988), Perils (1986), Covert Action (1984), Mayhem (1987), and Mercy (1989). In the 90s she turned to an investigation of public spaces, with B/side (1996) and Below The New: A Russian Chronicle (1999) which was shot in St. Petersburg Russia. Her newest films include Surface Noise (2000), DARK DARK (2001) and WHERE THE GIRLS ARE (2002), all premiering at respective New York Film Festivals while the single channel version of CAKE AND STEAK (2004) was featured at Oberhausen Film Festival this spring. Her works range in length from 5 to 70 minutes. She has participated in the Residency Program at the Experimental Television Center. Child is, as well, the author of a number of critical articles and several books of poetry (A Motive for Mayhem, Mob, Scatter Matrix, Artificial Memory most recently) with a new critical book forthcoming from University of Alabama Press: THIS IS CALLED MOVING: A Critical Poetics of Film. Both poetry and critical texts have appeared in a number of anthologies, including Moving Borders (Talisman Press, 1997), From the Other Side of the Century (Sun and Moon Press, 1994), and Resurgent: An Anthology of Women's Writing (Southern Illinois Press, 1992). Child's films and videos have won many awards and have been shown in retrospectives in conjunction with the New Museum at Anthology Film Archives (New York), Torino Film Festival (Italy), ICA (London), Mercer Union Gallery (Toronto), The Collective For Living Cinema (New York), The San Francisco Cinematheque and Frameline Film Festival (California). The work has officially been selected for the Oberhausen Film Festival, Visions du Reel, Nyon, the London and Rotterdam International Film Festivals, Pesaro Film Festival (Italy), the New York Film Festival and Video Sidebar, the Latin American International Short Film Festival (Toronto), and World Wide Video Festival (Den Haag)-among many others. Child is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship (Russia), an NEA Fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation Grant, a Massachusetts Arts Council Grant, an AFI Independent Filmmakers Grant, multiple grants from the New York State Council on the Arts sponsored by the Experimental Television Center, Finishing Funds awards through the Experimental Television Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony (residential studio). Child studied History & Literature at Radcliffe College (Magna cum laude) and graduated with an MFA from Yale University School of the Arts (Honors). She has taught film/video production and history at various schools, including NYU, Massachusetts College of Art, The Art Institute of San Francisco, Sarah Lawrence and Hampshire College. Since Jan. 2000, she is Chair of Film /Animation at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. http://www.abigailchild.com/