BIND
A short film inspired by true events, BIND premiered at the Florida Film Festival and was part of the official selection at Tacoma International Film Festival in 2021. BIND was also selected to show at the prestigious CAA Moebius Film Festival and part of the National Competition at the Helsinki International Film Festival in 2021.
USA, FINLAND | FORMAT: 13’ short film | GENRE: horror, suspense
TRAILER
“Over the years I have watched so many shorts about sexual exploitation that didn't have anything to say and felt oddly exploitative themselves, so it was really great to see a short like BIND that evolved beyond that. A gut punch of a short… Also, stellar first shot.”
— Levin Menekse, Writer & Producer
Written and directed by Inka Rusi
Director of Photography Richard Van
Produced by Sara Fenton & Tanja Rusi
Original score by Marko Nyberg
Executive Producers Nina Menkes, Tomi Alapaattikoski, Lauri Markkanen and Jolyon Neubert
CAST: Emma Halleen, Tim Cummings and Nick Marini.
Set in Southern California in the late 1970s and inspired by true events, BIND is a film about a teenage girl who tries to come to terms with her abusive father during a road trip to the desert. Shot in a highly cinematic style, BIND has touches of the Western genre which nod to the origins of American gun culture. The film peers into the tense relationship between the teenage Brenda and her father, watching him, undone by the trauma of his own life, plant the seed which will become Brenda’s undoing.
This film was made with the generous help of The Markkanen Family Foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Alison Doerner Fund for Women Pioneers in Filmmaking, Oskar Öflunds Foundation and executive producers Tomi Alapaattikoski and Jolyon Neubert.
IN DEVELOPMENT
Gus Van Sant, Neal Edelstein & Onerva Pictures present
HEATSTROKE
A political thriller and existential murder mystery, HEATSTROKE is set in Los Angeles and Cairo, during the searing heat of a contemporary summer. Older sister, celebrity NIKKI from LA, is separated by both physical distance and emotional trauma from her younger sister, JANET, wife of a diplomat stationed in Cairo. The film’s root is a history of violent, possibly sexual abuse that is buried within these women’s interior landscapes.
With its atmosphere of violence against an East/West nexus, LAX a key location, the film involves an American diplomat murdered in Afghanistan and includes sequences of raging fires in both the US and Egypt. Stylistically, the film contrasts highly beautiful surreal images with a brutal realism.
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FEATURE FILM 100' | UK | USA | FRANCE | MOROCCO | Writer & Director Nina Menkes
GENRE: psychological thriller | STATUS: in development
‘No less than David Lynch, Ms. Menkes is an artist of the unconscious for whom the creative and the spiritual quest are one and the same.’
— Dennis Lim, The New York Times