Portland Public Library

Maya Deren, experimental films, [director, Maya Deren]

eng

videorecording

MPAA rating: Not rated

Maya Deren

50924793

[director, Maya Deren]

76

experimental films

6 short films by surrealist Russian-American filmmaker Maya Deren, the "Mother of the trance film", that evoke and exemplify the American avant-garde film movement of the 1940s and 1950s, studying identity, movement, and freedomMeshes of the afternoon: In this expressionistic "trance film," full of dramatic angles and innovative editing, a woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in realityAt land: Maya Deren washes up on the shore of the beach, and climbs up a piece of driftwood that leads to a room lit by chandeliers, and one long table filled with men and women over which, seemingly invisible, she crawlsA Study in choreography for camera: An exploration of a man who dances in a forest, and then seems to teleport to the inside of a house because of how continuous his movements are from one place to the next, showing a progression from nature to the confines of society, and back to natureRitual in transfigured time: In this surreal silent avant garde film Deren weaves together her interest in dance with the exploration of myth and symbol, using movement and gestural play as a metaphor for courtship, sexual union, and fear of rejection, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legendMeditation on violence: Based on traditional training movements of the Wu-tang and Shaolin schools of Chinese boxing, Deren captures dancer Chao Li Chi performance as she experiments with film time through edited sequences altering between slow motion footage, reversed footage and doubled footage, reversing the film part way through producing a loop that returns to the first sequenceThe very eye of night: Dancers, shown in photographic negative, perform a series of ballet moves - solos, pas de deux, larger groupings - the dancers gliding and rotating untroubled by gravity against a slowly changing starfield background

live action

Experimental filmsCollected experimental films