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MAYA DEREN COMPLETE
The experimental filmmaker Maya Deren (b. 1917 in Ukraine – d. 1961 in USA) was a defining character of the American avant-garde film in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer and photographer. To find traces after her, you need not look further than the associative yet meticulously composed fantasies in the films of David Lynch.
Deren’s clearly expressed ambition for the cinema art was to ignore the requirement of a linear narrative, and rather pursuit inner realities to convey an experience. She skillfully pushed the technical boundaries – using editing, multiple exposures, jump cutting, superimposition, slow-motion and other camera techniques – to abandon the established notions of physical space and time, thus sometimes stage her vision in the form of stream of consciousness.
Her fascination for dance runs as a common thread through her filmography, and the term ‘choreocinema’ was coined a label for her output. Other frequently used labels are dreamlike, surreal, philosophical, psychological, spiritual and mystical. According to Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is the most influential film in American experimental cinema. Her entrepreneurial talent came into its own when, in the absence of a place to screen the films, she worked hard to establish screening venues for this type of film, and inspired to establishing the legendary Cinema 16.
After completing four low-budget films in three years, Deren completed only two films in the next 15 years. According to Mekas, her attention turned from film art to various intellectual directions, e.g. a strong interest in anthropology. Her last major effort was documenting Haitian voodoo rituals, which was an unfinished project when she died aged just 44. Of the films we screen, some were completed by others after her death, while other films are screened the way she left them.
We are proud to present a rather complete Maya Deren retrospective, thanks to internegative 2K scans that Re:voir and Kino Classics performed for her centenary.
Text sources:
Re:voir – Pip Chodorov;
The Film-Makers’ Cooperative;
Maya Deren articles in Film Culture;
The Maya Deren essay ‘Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality’ (Deadalus, 1960).
Screening Rights: Re:voir, e: info@re-voir.com
MAYA DEREN COMPLETE 1 (Total: 88 min.)
CINE - TOR | THUR 21:00
USA 1943 | Exp. | 14 min. |
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON En kvinne er fanget i et labyrintisk mareritt sammen med sin dobbeltgjenger så vel som en mystisk kappefigur med et speil som ansikt. En av de mest innflytelsesrike avantgardefilmene gjennom tidene. A woman is trapped in a labyrinthine nightmare along with her doppelganger as well as a mysterious cloaked figure with a mirror as a face. One of the most influential avant garde films of all time. Script, Editing: Maya Deren | Camera: Alexander Hammid | Cast: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Music: Teiji Ito (added in 1959) Production: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid |
USA 1943 | Exp. | 12 min. |
WITCH’S CRADLE [UNFINISHED] En uferdig film laget i Guggenheim-galleriet under en surrealistisk "Art of this Century"-utstilling, med Marcel Duchamp. An unfinished film made in the Guggenheim Gallery during a surrealist 'Art of this Century' exhibit, featuring Marcel Duchamp. Script: Maya Deren | Cast: Marcel Duchamp, Pajarito Matta Production: (unfinished) |
USA 1944 | Exp. | 15 min. |
AT LAND I en drømmeaktig fortelling blir en kvinne skylt opp på en strand og drar på en merkelig reise hvor hun møter andre mennesker og andre versjoner av seg selv. In a dream-like narrative, a woman is washed up on a beach and goes on a strange journey encountering other people and other versions of herself. Script: Maya Deren | Camera: Alexander Hammid, Hella Heyman | Cast: John Cage, Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Hella Heyman Production: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid |
USA 1945 | Exp. | 3 min. |
A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR CAMERA En danser beveger seg uanstrengt innenfor og mellom ulike miljøer (skog, stue, museumsgalleri, etc.), en prestasjon oppnådd gjennom nøye matching av danserens nøyaktig koreograferte bevegelser med filmens klipperytme. Slik skapes en ny geografisk virkelighet. A dancer moves effortlessly within and between different environments (forest, living room, museum gallery, etc.), an achievement arrived at through the careful matching of the dancer's precisely choreographed movements with the film's editing pattern. This way, a new geographical reality is created. Camera: Hella Heyman, Alexander Hammid, Maya Deren | Editing: Alexander Hammid, Maya Deren | Cast: Talley Beatty Production: Maya Deren |
USA 1946 | Exp. | 15 min. |
RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME En kvinne vandrer gjennom et overfylt cocktailparty hvor alle andre ser ut til å kjenne hverandre. De andres rituelle hilsener blir stadig mer koreograferte, inntil det i stor grad blir til en dans. A woman finds herself wandering through a crowded cocktail party where everyone else seems to know each other. The others’ ritualistic greetings become increasingly choreographed, until it essentially becomes a dance. Script: Maya Deren | Camera: Hella Heyman | Editing: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Cast: Rita Christiani Production: Maya Deren |
USA 1947 | Exp. | 29 min. |
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A CAT En intim studie av en hunnkatt som føder et kull med kattunger. Filmen viser grafisk at kattungene blir født uten hjelp av menneskehender, og deretter blir ammet og vasket av moren. An intimate study of a female cat who gives birth to a litter of kittens. The film shows graphically the kittens being born without the help of human hands, and then getting nursed and washed by their mother. Script, Camera, Editing: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid Production: Maya Deren |
MAYA DEREN COMPLETE 2 (Total: 78 min.)
CINE - LØR | SAT 21:00
USA 1948 | Exp. | 13 min. |
MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE En av de tidligste ikke-kommersielle filmene om kampsport. Akkurat som de faktiske bevegelsene til kinesisk boksing er en fysisk utførelse av metafysiske konsepter, så er filmen, i filmiske termer, i seg selv en utførelse av de samme konseptene. One of the earliest non-commercial films on the subject of martial arts. Just as the actual movements of Chinese boxing are a physical statement of metaphysical concepts, so the film is, in filmic terms, itself a statement of those same concepts. Script: Chao Li Chi, Maya Deren | Music: Teiji Itō | Cast: Chao Li Chi Production: Maya Deren |
USA 1958 | Exp. | 15 min. |
THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT Danserne og kameraet er sammen koreografert til en himmelsk nattens ballett, i en film projisert slik som fotografert - i negativ. Maya Derens siste fullførte film, skutt 1952-1955 i samarbeid med koreograf Antony Tudor. The dancers and the camera are together choreographed into a heavenly ballet of the night, in a film projected as photographed in the negative. Maya Deren’s last completed film, shot 1952-1955 in collaboration with choreographer Antony Tudor. Script: Maya Deren | Editing: Maya Deren | Music: Teiji Itō | Cast: Don Freisinger, Richard Sandifer, Patricia Ferrier, Bud Bready |
USA 1977 | Exp. | 50 min. |
DIVINE HORSEMEN (1947-1985) Om dans og besettelse i haitisk voodoo, skutt av Maya Deren mellom 1947 og 1952 og redigert og fullført etter hennes død. Det meste av filmen består av bilder av dans og kropper i bevegelse under gudstjeneste-ritualer i Rada og Petro. About dance and possession in Haitian voodoo, shot by Maya Deren between 1947 and 1952 and edited and completed after her death. Most of the film consists of images of dancing and bodies in motion during rituals in Rada and Petro services. Script: Maya Deren, Teiji Itō, Cherel Itō | Camera: Maya Deren | Editing: Cherel Itō | Music: Teiji Itō |
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