Maya Deren
Director · 1917 – 1961 · Kyiv, Ukraine
Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleonora Derenkowska (Ukrainian: Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська), was one of the most important American experimental filmmakers and entrepreneurial promoters of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer and photographer.
Movies8
Movie7.6MysteryFantasyA woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Meshes of the Afternoon
1943 · 458 votes
Movie4.5HistoryDocumentaryMaya Deren's Sink, a 30 minute experimental film, is an evocative tribute to the mother of avantgarde American film. The film calls forth the spirit of one who was larger than life as recounted by those who knew her. Teiji Ito's family, Carolee Schneemann and Judith Malvina, float through the homes recalling in tiny bits and pieces words of Deren's architectural and personal interior space. Clips from Maya Deren's films are projected back into the spaces where they were originally filmed appearing on the floorboard, furniture, and in the bowl of her former sink. Fluid light projections of intimate space provide an elusive agency for a filmmaker most of us will never know as film with its imaginary nature evokes a former time and space.
Maya Deren's Sink
2011 · 2 votes
Movie7.2FantasyA woman washes up on a beach and embarks on a surreal journey, encountering others and fragmented versions of herself in a quest for identity.
At Land
1944 · 112 votes
Movie7.5DocumentaryDocumentary about the life of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren, who led the independent film movement of the 1940s.
Movie6.8FantasyA social event choreographed in the manner of a dance, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend; one of filmmaker Maya Deren's most intriguing works.
Ritual in Transfigured Time
1946 · 72 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryExperimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community.
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011 · 12 votes
Movie6.3DocumentaryMaya Deren is a legend of avant-garde cinema. This authoritative biography of the charismatic filmmaker, poet and anthropologist features excerpts from her pioneering Meshes of the Afternoon and her unfinished documentary on Haiti, interviews with Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas, and recordings of her lectures. Narrated by actress Helen Mirren, this definitive documentary offers startling insights into one of the most intriguing, accomplished figures in cinema history.
Invocation: Maya Deren
1986 · 3 votes
- Movie5.0DocumentaryHistory
This documentary interweaves films and voice recordings by Maya Deren with interviews featuring colleagues and contemporaries who worked with or knew her firsthand. Drawing on archival material and commentary from figures such as Jean Rouch and Jonas Mekas, the film traces Deren’s work and influence across experimental cinema and ethnographic thought.
Maya Deren, Take Zero
2012 · 1 votes