Maya Deren

Maya Deren was a brilliant filmmaker and theorist whose films and writings have nevertheless paled beside the even larger legend surrounding her life and death. From the early 1940’s until her sudden (and some would say supernaturally-caused) death in 1961, Maya Deren both evoked and exemplified the American avant-garde film movement virtually by herself – as filmmaker, distributor, lecturer, theorist and promoter – all in one fiery personality. She worked completely outside the commercial film industry and made her own inner experience the center of her films…

Maya Deren forum.

Maya Deren is recognizable as the woman with the enigmatic expression at the window, silently observing from within. Although her eyes indicate distrust, she is not desperate to escape her domestic space, but she is not entirely comfortable immured behind the glass. This image symbolizes some of Deren’s most significant initiatives in experimental cinema. In this still shot she establishes a silent connection with the eyes, suggesting the possibility for reverie or even hallucination…