Notes on Marie Menken

Marie Menken was an artist and experimental filmmaker who was a contemporary and confidante to many noted auteurs of the ‘60s, including Kenneth Anger (he helped her shoot her film Arabesque for Kenneth Anger, while she appeared in Scorpio Rising), Stan Brakhage (he was an outspoken supporter of her work) and Andy Warhol (she appears in The Chelsea Girls and supposedly coached him on working with movie equipment). While Menken never received the same acclaim among cineastes as the above-mentioned filmmakers, today she’s considered an important and pioneering artist, and filmmaker Martina Kudlacek pays homage to the woman and her work in this documentary. Notes on Marie Menken includes clips from several of Menken’s films, as well as interviews with Kenneth Anger, Billy Name, Mary Woronov, Jonas Mekas, and others who knew her; filmmaker Kudlacek also examines how Menken’s work has impacted her own creative vision. Notes on Marie Menken received its North American premier at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.