Nel Dahl
Freelance writer; Powderdoom editor
I'm a freelance writer examining fresh perspectives and unsung legacies in music, film and the arts, with a penchant for fantastical cinema and synthesizers.
PROJECTS
cleojournal.com
The "Undervalued Gesture" in the Lens of Babette Mangolte
Behind the lens that shot Chantal Akerman’s iconic Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) is camerawoman and filmmaker Babette Mangolte.
broadly.vice.com
The Forgotten Surrealist Painter Who ‘Didn’t Have Time to Be Anyone’s Muse’
Two new books celebrate the challenging, unapologetically bizarre work of the writer and painter Leonora Carrington.
mubi.com
Isabelle Huppert's Double Gaze
It's not merely the nature of the actress's characters that sets her apart, it's the thought-provoking ambiguities she riddles them with.
dazeddigital.com
Kate Bush's cinema of sound | Dazed
As she releases her long-awaited Before The Dawn live album, we explore the musician’s longstanding desire to tie together the worlds of music and film.
fandor.com
THE HANDMAIDEN by GASLIGHT | Keyframe
The Handmaiden is a unique, complex new entry in gothic storytelling that recalls the dense subtext and filmic innovations of its predecessors like Gaslight, a film that seventy years later still confounds viewers.
sphinxinthenight.wordpress.com
Banks, The Mercurial Relationship with the Self & Learning to "Take Up Space”
In Banks’ new video, she menaces her own doppelganger mannequin with uncomfortable intimacy.
svllywood.com
Waking the Witch
Are you ready to experience the tantalizing voices of vampiric legends and monstrous feminine sounds? This collection is the Pandora’s box of all things audibly avant-garde, highlighting almost 40 songs of wild, female-centric gothic rock, postpunk & forgotten horror movie soundtracks.
powderdoom.tumblr.com
The Link Between Studio 54 & High Art, Disco & Dali: Amanda Lear
An inspiration in every direction she went, Amanda Lear was Salvador Dali’s biggest muse, a Studio 54 disco queen, Roxy Music album cover girl, the basis behind Absolutely Fabulous’ Patsy, and much more. But Lear spun the role as decoration for men’s work into a self-mythologized career featuring some of the era’s most indelible imagery and songs...
nefertiti.tumblr.com
people you should know: akiko yano
Akiko Yano is one of music's greatest treasures.
nefertiti.tumblr.com
"the goddess": one of china's greatest silent films
Considered by some as the greatest silent film produced in China, The Goddess exemplifies 1930s Chinese realist filmmaking and remains the showcase of legendary Shanghai film star, Ruan Lingyu.