Maya Deren

Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer and photographer. Image File history File links culled from promo photo edited File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links culled from promo photo edited File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Early life

Deren was born in Kiev, Ukraine. It is said that she was named after Eleanora Duse, an Italian actress. In 1922, after a series of anti-Semitic pogroms and because of her father's sympathies for Leon Trotsky, the family fled to Syracuse, New York. Her father shortened the family name to "Deren" shortly after they arrived in New York. He became the staff psychiatrist at the State Institute for the Feeble-Minded in Syracuse. Her mother moved to Paris to be with her daughter while she attended the League of Nations School in Geneva, Switzerland from 1930 to 1933. In 1928, she became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. Location Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Russian word pogrom (погром) refers to a massive violent attack on people with simultaneous destruction of their environment (homes, businesses, religious centers). ...   (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий) (Latinized: Lev Davidovič Trokij; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7, 1879 [O.S. October 26] – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Nickname: The Salt City Location of Syracuse within the state of New York Coordinates: City Mayor Matthew Driscoll Area    - City 66. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land... The Liganations was an international organization founded after the Paris Peace Conference of 2009 by Dave Hepler. ... Coat of arms of the Canton of Geneva Coat of arms of the City of Geneva Geneva (French: Genève, German: Genf, Italian: Ginevra, Romansh Genevra, Spanish: Ginebra) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zurich), located where Lake Geneva (French: Lac de Genève or Lac L... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Naturalization is the process whereby a person becomes a national of a nation, or a citizen of a country, other than the one of his birth. ...

College

Deren began college at Syracuse University, where she became active in the Trotskyist Young People's Socialist League. Through the YPSL she met Gregory Bardacke, who she later married at the age of eighteen. After his graduation in 1935, she moved to New York City. She and her husband became very active in various socialist causes in New York City. She graduated from New York University and separated from Bardacke. The divorce was finalized in 1939. She began her studies for a master’s degree in English literature at the New School for Social Research and completed it at Smith College. Syracuse University (SU) is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York. ... YPSLs Logo The Young Peoples Socialist League (YPSL) is a democratic socialist youth group originally affiliated with the Socialist Party of America. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... New School University is an institute of higher learning in New York City. ... Smith College, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, is the largest womens college in the United States. ...

After graduation from Smith, Deren returned to New York’s Greenwich Village where she worked as a free-lance secretary. In 1941 she became the personal secretary to choreographer Katherine Dunham. At the end of a tour, the Dunham dance company stopped in Los Angeles for several months to work in Hollywood. It was there that Deren met Alexandr Hackenschmied, a celebrated Czech-born photographer and cameraman who would become her second husband in 1942. Hackenschmid had fled Czechoslovakia after Hitler's advance. He changed his name at Deren's behest to Alexander Hammid (nickname Sasha) because Deren thought Hackenschmid sounded too Jewish (which he was not). Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... The Washington Square Arch Greenwich Village (pronounced Grennich Village; also called simply the Village) is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern) Manhattan in New York City. ... This article is about the year. ... Katherine Dunham in 1956 Katherine Mary Dunham (22 June 1909 – 21 May 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator and activist who was trained as an anthropologist. ... The Katherine Dunham Company, a troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musicians, was the first African American modern dance company. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... ... Alexandr Hackenschmied (1907-2004) was a leading avant-garde photographer and filmmaker in Czechslovakia between the two world wars. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...

Cinema

In the early 1940s, Deren used some of the inheritance from her father to purchase a used 16 mm Bolex camera. She used this camera to make her first and most well-known film, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), in collaboration with Hammid. Meshes of the Afternoon is recognized as a seminal American avant-garde film. Originally a silent film with no dialogue, music for the film was composed by Deren's third husband Teiji Ito in 1959. (Redirected from 16 mm) 16mm film was initially created in the 1920s as an inexpensive amateur alternative to the conventional 35 mm film format. ... A Bolex H16 Reflex spring-wound clockwork16 mm camera Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a short experimental film directed by husband and wife team Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. ... Teiji Ito (surname Ito; b. ...

In 1943, she adopted the name Maya Deren. Maya is the name of the mother of the historical Buddha as well as the dharmic concept of reality being but an illusion. In Greek myth, Maia is the mother of Hermes and a goddess of mountains and fields. Also in 1943, Deren began making a film with Marcel Duchamp, The Witches' Cradle, which was never completed. Media:Example. ... The word Dharmic is an adjective of the word Dharma. ... Maia, in Greek mythology, is the eldest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. ... Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles Hermes (Greek IPA: ), in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travellers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and commerce in general... Marcel Duchamp. ...

At that time her social circle included the likes of André Breton, Duchamp, John Cage, and Anaïs Nin. André Breton (February 18, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist. ... John Cage For the character of John Cage from the TV show Ally McBeal see: John Cage (Character) John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American experimental music composer, writer and visual artist. ... Anaïs Nin in the mid-1970s. ...

Deren's second film was At Land, which she made in 1944. She made A Study in Choreography for the Camera in 1945. Ritual in Transfigured Time was made in 1946, which explored the fear of rejection and the freedom of expression in abandoning ritual. At Land is another of Maya Derens dream like films. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...

In 1946 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for "Creative Work in the Field of Motion Pictures". In 1947 she won the Grand Prix Internationale for 16 mm experimental film at the Cannes Film Festival for Meshes of the Afternoon. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Deren's Meditation on Violence was made in 1948. Chao Li Chi's performance obscures the distinction between violence and beauty. Half way through the film, the sequence is rewound, producing a film loop. 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ...

In 1958, Deren collaborated with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School to create The Very Eye of Night. 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Józef Hofmann, November 28, 1937. ...

Deren distributed her own films and promoted them through lectures and screenings in the US, Canada, and Cuba. She lectured on film theory and Voudoun. She wrote, directed, edited, and performed in her own films. Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for analyzing, among other things, the film image, narrative structure, the function of film artists, the relationship of film to reality, and the film spectators position in the cinematic experience. ... The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based Theist-Animist religious tradition. ...

Criticism of Hollywood

Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Deren attacked Hollywood for its artistic, political and economic monopoly over American cinema. She bragged, “I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick”, and complained that Hollywood “has been a major obstacle to the definition and development of motion pictures as a creative fine-art form.” She set herself in opposition to the Hollywood film industry’s standards and practices.

Haiti & Voodoo

The Guggenheim grant enabled Deren to finance travel to Haiti to pursue her interest in voodoo. Dunham wrote her master’s thesis on Haitian dances in 1936, which may have influenced Deren’s interest. In Haiti, Deren not only filmed many hours of voodoo ritual, but also participated in them, and adopted the religion. Her book on the subject, Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti (1953), is considered a definitive source on the subject. However, the accompanying documentary remained incomplete in her lifetime and was edited and produced by Teiji Ito and his wife Cherel Winett Ito (1947-1999) in 1981, twenty years after Deren's death. All of the original film, wire recordings, and notes are held in the Maya Deren Collection at Boston University. The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based religious tradition with primary roots among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. ... For the unrelated Jesuit university in Chestnut Hill, see Boston College. ...

Death

Deren died in 1961, at the age of 44, from a brain hemorrhage brought on by extreme malnutrition. Her condition was also weakened by the amphetamines she had been taking since she began working for Dunham in 1941, prescribed by Dr. Max Jacobson. Jacobson was investigated by The New York Times in 1972 for developing drug dependencies in his patients, and lost his medical license in 1975. Deren was taking amphetamines and sleeping pills on a daily basis when she died. Her father suffered from high blood pressure, which she may have as well. A cerebral hemorrhage is a condition in the brain in which a blood vessel leaks. ... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Her ashes were scattered in Japan at Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji Mount Fuji , IPA: ) is the highest mountain in Japan. ...

After her death, Deren allegedly appeared to poet James Merrill (1926-1995) and his partner David Jackson (1922-2001) during séances in which she spelled out ghostly messages through a Ouija board. Deren is a character in Merrill's The Book of Ephraim (1976), the first book of the trilogy known as The Changing Light at Sandover (1982), included in Divine Comedies. James Merrill paid for the completion of several of Deren's films. poet James Merrill, age 30, in a 1957 publicity photograph for The Seraglio James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 - February 6, 1995) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American writer, increasingly regarded as one of the most important 20th century poets in the English language. ... David Noyes Jackson (September 16, 1922 – July 13, 2001) was the life partner of poet James Merrill (1926-1995). ... A séance (pronounced: ) is, on its most basic level, an attempt to communicate with the dead. ... A typical Ouija board Ouija (pronounced wee-juh or wee-jee) refers to the belief that one can receive messages during a séance by the use of a Ouija board (also called a talking board or spirit board) and planchette. ... The cover of The Changing Light at Sandover shows the ballroom of James Merrills childhood home in the 1930s The Changing Light At Sandover is a 560-page poem by James Merrill (1926-1995). ... Published in 1976, Divine Comedies is the seventh book of poetry by James Merrill (1926-1995). ...

Legacy

Deren was a key figure in the creation of a 'New American Cinema.'

In 1986, the American Film Institute created the Maya Deren Award. 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The American Film Institute (AFI) is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ...

Milla Jovovich's 1994 music video, "Gentleman Who Fell", pays homage to Meshes of the Afternoon. Milica Natasha Jovović (Serbian Милица Јововић/Milica Jovović, Ukrainian: Мілла Йовович; born December 17, 1975), better known as Milla Jovovich, is a Ukrainian-born American supermodel, actress, musician, singer, and fashion designer. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ...

In 2001, Martina Kudlacek released a documentary about Deren, titled In the Mirror of Maya Deren. This article needs cleanup. ...

In 2004, the UK-based Horse and Bamboo Theatre created and toured Dance of White Darkness throughout Europe - the story of Deren's visits to Haiti. Horse and Bamboo Theatre or Horse + Bamboo Theatre is a British theatre company founded in 1978 by the Artistic Director, Bob Frith, that works internationally as well as within the UK and from its Centre in Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancashire. ...

In 2005, American punk-blues group the Immortal Lee County Killers used a photo of Deren on the cover of their CD "These Bones Will Rise To Love You Again".

Filmography

• Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) with Alexander Hammid, music by Teiji Ito added 1959
• At Land (1944) photographed by Hella Heyman and Alexander Hammid
• A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945) with Talley Beatty
• Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) Choreographic collaboration with Frank Westbrook and Rita Christiani.
• Meditation on Violence (1948) performance by Chao-li Chi, Chinese flute and Haitian drums musical collage by Maya Deren
• The Very Eye of Night (1952-55) with Metropolitan Opera Ballet School and Antony Tudor, music by Teiji Ito
• Unfinished
• The Witches' Cradle (1943) with Marcel Duchamp and Pajorita Matta
• Medusa (1949) With Jean Erdman
• Haitian Film Footage (1947-55) assembled by Teiji and Cherel Ito as Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1981)
• Season of Strangers (1959) also known as Haiku Film Project
• Unreleased
• Ensemble for Somnambulists (1951) Toronto Film Society workshop
• Collaborations
• The Private Life of a Cat (1945) directed by Alexander Hammid

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a short experimental film directed by husband and wife team Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Teiji Ito (surname Ito; b. ... The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Józef Hofmann, November 28, 1937. ... Antony Tudor in “Gala Performance”, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 Antony Tudor (April 4, 1909 - April 19, 1987), born William Cook, was an English choreographer and dancer who choreographed numerous ballets. ... Marcel Duchamp. ... See also Jean Erdman, Baron Dieskau. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Bibliographies

• Deren bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

See also

• Women's Cinema

The term womens cinema usually refers to the work of women film directors. ...

External links

• Maya Deren - the DVD
• Maya Deren at the Internet Movie Database
• Maya Deren Forum
• Essay on Deren
• The-Artists.org listing
• Private Life of a Cat at the Internet Archive
• Women of the Beat - Biography page for Maya Deren