Skjemt Blod

Gwenmarie White - 2018 - United States - 6 min

In her CalArts thesis, SKJEMT BLOD (which translates to “bad blood” or “tainted blood” in Norwegian), Gwenmarie White uses what she has coined “girl kvlture” as a vehicle for meditation on American brutality. The orchestral black metal adaptation of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” takes advantage of the tension between the sounds and images of pop culture and metal culture to call attention to larger aspects of violence and pleasure. “My goal is to always straddle the line between critique and complicity,” says White, “because it is a critique…but it’s also a love letter.” The line in SKJEMT BLOD is always moving, digging stubbornly and disturbingly deeper into tropes and stereotypes rather than dismantling them. Suburban whiteness rears its ugly (but also, like, really, really pretty) head, proving that “trve” brutality takes many forms, and moves with an insidious ease throughout the institutions of late-stage capitalism.

This film is being screened in the short film program Coming of Age.

Director: Gwenmarie White

Gwenmarie White is a Metalhead Valley Girl interested in what would happen if Laura Ashley listened to Cannibal Corpse, if the subway scene from POSSESSION took place in Limited Too, if Lisa Frank ran a dogfighting ring, and if Bonne Bell made corpse paint. When it comes to creative content, she staunchly subscribes to Larry David’s “no hugging, no learning” policy, and aims to create work that is easy to consume/difficult to digest. Her past studies have included the subjects of moshing, ecstatic/liminal spaces, and women invading traditionally male territory. Gwenmarie is currently an MFA candidate in Art at the California Institute of the Arts.