Maya Deren Experimental Films

Starring: Maya Deren

"The collected shorts of Maya Deren the ""Mother of the trance film"" who worked completely outside the commercial film industry and made her own inner experience the center of her films. "From the early 1940's until her death in 1961, Maya Deren evoked and exemplified the American avant-garde movement virtually by herself. Her first film, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, set the tone for the decade and linked the movement to the older European avant-garde films of Cocteau and Bunuel." - Cecile Starr, The New York Times ""The cinema of Maya Deren delivers us from the studios: it presents our eyes with physical facts which contain profound psychological meaning; it beats out within our hearts a time which alternates, continues, revolves, pounds, or flies away... Poetry, after all, is the feast which life offers those who know how to receive with their eyes and hearts, and understand."" - Le Corbusier ""Intensely personal, symbolic and surreal films that reveal her deepest, darkest fantasies. She's Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously possessed body. Watching these films can change forever your concept of what cinema can be."" - L. A. Weekly Further Information: Includes: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943-59, in collaboration with Alexander Hammid, music by Teiji Ito, 14 min.) AT LAND (1944, silent, 15 min.) A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR CAMERA (1945, silent, 4 min.) RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (1945-6, silent, 15 min.) MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE (1948, music arranged by Maya Deren, 12 min.) THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT (1952-59, choreographic collaboration by Anthony Tudor, music by Teiji Ito, 15 min.) Special Features: Excerpt from DIVINE HORSEMAN: THE LIVING GODS OF HAITI PRIVATE LIFE OF A CAT Previously unreleased short by Alexander Hammid PICTURE GALLERY NOTES AND QUOTES BIOGRAPHY"

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 880198037794
• Release Date: May 1993
• Rating: Unrated (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Mystic Fire Video
• Director: Maya Deren
• Starring: Maya Deren
• Runtime: 1 hour, 16 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: Multiple Formats; Color; NTSC
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Interesting and a good addition to your library

This is a collection of short experimental films in black and white. If this had been a magazine, it would have been a photographer’s magazine, and these could easily have been artsy type stills. The experiments are from a time passed. However, even today, they are powerful images. You will see these images or images like these in many art films of the time. Even though this is worth watching for historic and art value, there are not a lot of places for it in today’s world. However, like a coffee table book, Maya Deren can be a great conversation piece when you view other films of that era. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) At Land (1944) A study in Choreography for Camera (1945) Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) Mediation on violence (1948) The very eye of night (1952-59) 15 minutes Music by Teiji Ito **** Each section comes with “Notes & Quotes” so you know what you are looking at. Special features: “Private Life of a Cat,” a documentary by Alexander Hamid Divine Horseman (excerpt) Biography Bibliography Writing about Maya Deren