Monika Treut was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, on April 6, 1954. She studied literature and politics at Philipps-University, Marburg. In the mid-seventies she began working with video. Her PhD thesis: "The Cruel Woman. Female Images in the Writing of Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch" was published in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 1984.
In the mid-eighties Treut started to write, direct and produce award-winning independent features and documentaries which screened at numerous film festivals throughout the world and enjoy international distribution. Retrospectives have been held in Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Taipeh, Toronto, Cambridge, Helsinki, Thessaloniki, Los Angeles and Lisbon. Treut's first feature, co-directed with Elfi Mikesch, was the controversial "Seduction:The Cruel Woman",1985, which since has become a cult classic. The black and white coming-out tale "Virgin Machine" followed in 1988. "My Father Is Coming", a comedy of manners set in New York, was released in 1991. In 1992 Treut began directing documentaries: "Female Misbehavior", four portraits of "bad girls", among them Camille Paglia; "Didn`t Do It For Love" in 1997, a portrait of Norwegian-born Eva Norvind, B-movie star in Mexico, later dominatrix in New York; a group portrait of transgendered cyborgs in San Francisco "Gendernauts" in 1999; and, most recently, Treut completed "Warrior of Light", on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, an internationally renown artist and human rights activist who works with endangered children in the streets and slums of Rio de Janeiro.
Since 1990 Treut has also been teaching and lecturing at Colleges (Vassar, Hollins, Dartmouth), Art Institutes (SFAI) and Universities (UIC, UCSD) in the U.S. Treut runs the independent film production company, Hyena Films, with offices in Hamburg, Germany.
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