At Land
great visual accompaniment to music, since it has no sound of its own
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Maya Deren
Films
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Meshes of the Afternoon
One of the most important films in the history of American avant-garde cinema, Maya Deren’s MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON is captivating and dream-like, filled with tinges of psychodrama, murder mystery, and film noir. In a seemingly ordinary Los Angeles home, the film’s protagonist, played by the filmmaker...Start your free trial to watch
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At Land
AT LAND begins at sea. In the film’s stunning opening sequence, a woman (played by filmmaker Maya Deren) emerges on shore, climbs up a pile of driftwood... and finds herself in the middle of a formal banquet. She then moves from lush, verdant jungles to seaweed-strewn beaches, stealing chess pieces from other characters....Start your free trial to watch
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The Private Life of a Cat
Toward the end of their marriage, filmmakers Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid collaborated on the remarkable short THE PRIVATE LIVE OF A CAT. As the film’s furry protagonists, identified only as “She” and “He,” gave birth to a litter of kittens (a process recorded in the film in full though without sound),...Start your free trial to watch
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Ritual in Transfigured Time
Elusive and enigmatic, RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME begins with its director, the avant-garde pioneer filmmaker Maya Deren, winding a seemingly endless skein of yarn. She is joined by a young woman (the Trinidadian dancer Rita Christiani, one of Deren’s closest friends) who is then led away from their...Start your free trial to watch
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A Study in Choreography for Camera
“If I did not live in a time when film was accessible to me as a medium, I would have been a dancer, perhaps, or a singer,” the filmmaker Maya Deren once said. “But this is a much more marvelous dance. In film, I can make the world dance!” After college, Deren landed her first job working for the famed...Start your free trial to watch
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Meditation on Violence
Haunting Chinese flute and Haitian drums accompany a graceful, elegant dance performance by Chao-Li Chi in Maya Deren’s MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE. The film was released following the publication of her book, “An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film” (1947), and her winning the Grand Prix Internationale for...Start your free trial to watch
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The Very Eye of Night
A troupe of dancers is superimposed in negative over a starry night sky in Maya Deren’s last completed film, THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT. For this ambitious project, which she described as a danced version of “a voyage into the self” and yet another “choreography for camera,” Deren collaborated with members of...Start your free trial to watch
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Divine Horsemen
In 1946, Maya Deren was the first filmmaker ever awarded an artistic Guggenheim grant. With the $3,000 prize money, she traveled to Haiti, a country she would visit four times and where she would spend a total of nearly two years. Deren was the first known white woman to became a high priestess of Haitian Voodoun, a religion...Start your free trial to watch
Genres
- International / Americas / North American / American
- International / Americas / North American / American
- International / Americas / North American / American
- International / Americas / North American / American
- International / Americas / North American / American
- International / Americas / North American / American
- International / Americas / North American / American
- Avant-garde
- Documentary / Art / Performing Arts / Dance
- Documentary / Art / Performing Arts / Dance
- Fantasy / Fable
- International / Americas / Caribbean / Haitian
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Non-Narrative
- Short / Performance
- Short / Performance
- Short / Performance
- Documentary / Religion
- Drama / Romantic Drama
- Avant-garde / Silent
- Avant-garde / Silent
- Avant-garde / Silent
- Avant-garde / Silent
- Avant-garde / Silent
- Avant-garde / Silent
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Documentary / Travelogue
Recent Reviews
A Study in Choreography for Camera
A Study in Choreography for the Camera is the film in which Deren achieved an epistemological break from dance films that only ‘recorded’ movement. The new form was called “choreocinema”....
Meshes of the Afternoon
beautiful
Meshes of the Afternoon
For anyone who happens to be in Texas, I'll be projecting this classic in 16mm, along with Ron Rice's CHUMLUM, at a musical performance in Houston this Sunday: https://www.facebook.com/events/504587279605382/
Meditation on Violence
I had not seen this one. I don't know if a Fandor review could do this one justice. I was truly mesmerized.