High Dice: A Bathory Tale first began as a collaboration between Monika and Yasmeed Daniel. "I was in Milwaukee visiting family and due to winter storms on the East coast, I ended up staying a several extra days," explains Monika, "I had been obsessed with the story of Elizabeth Bathory, comparing it to my own struggles with ideas of beauty. What is beauty to a black queer woman? How do I see myself?"
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More importantly – through what lens do we define ourselves as beings? I think the story of Countess Bathory exhibits the depravity one can sink into when insecurities run deep. Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian countess who killed young women in order to bathe in their blood. Believing this ritual would stop the loss of her looks and vitality to aging, she had a reported 650 victims.
We present Liza, played by Yasmeen Daniel. Her character in High Dice is a young, mixed race black woman who feels conflicted about her looks. On one hand, she has privilege due to her light skin, yet still retains the insecurity of never obtaining acceptance from a primarily white alt scene in the midwest. She still endures tokenization, minimization and anti-blackness.
We follow her through the turbulent night before she decides to claim her first victim. She does indeed bathe in her victim's blood, satiating the yearning for self-acceptance. Liza's vengeance is against the fragility of Eurocentric beauty and western identity. Her vengeance also focusing on cis, white womanhood placed on a pedestal, misogynoir and its lonely ramifications. She takes aim on colorist within ourselves and in our communities. In the end, it's all about blood.
We present Liza, played by Yasmeen Daniel. Her character in High Dice is a young, mixed race black woman who feels conflicted about her looks. On one hand, she has privilege due to her light skin, yet still retains the insecurity of never obtaining acceptance from a primarily white alt scene in the midwest. She still endures tokenization, minimization and anti-blackness.
We follow her through the turbulent night before she decides to claim her first victim. She does indeed bathe in her victim's blood, satiating the yearning for self-acceptance. Liza's vengeance is against the fragility of Eurocentric beauty and western identity. Her vengeance also focusing on cis, white womanhood placed on a pedestal, misogynoir and its lonely ramifications. She takes aim on colorist within ourselves and in our communities. In the end, it's all about blood.
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Written and directed by Monika Estrella Negra
Starring Yasmeen Daniel
Starring Yasmeen Daniel
