Maya Deren: An Experimental Life

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Maya Deren, born Eleanora Derenkowsky on April 29, 1917 in Kiev, Ukraine, has been referred to as the high priestess of experimental cinema. It looks at how, although she was a dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer, she is still considered a pioneer not only in experimental filmmaking, but also a voice for the feminist film community. It examines how, as a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema, Deren's legacy is both abstract and tangible and how her innovations in filmmaking continue to fascinate aspiring experimental filmmakers. It shows how her pioneering, uncompromising spirit enabled her to elude the institutional limitations that controlled filmmaking in 1940's American culture.

From the Paper:

"Another of Deren's experimental films, A Study in Choreography for the Camera, was filmed in 1945. Deren's 16mm Bolex camera becomes a performer equal in significance to the star of this film. (Talley Beattey) In the opening sequence, Deren's camera rotates more than 360 degrees, scanning past the figure in movement. In this film Deren articulates the potential for transcendence through dance and ritual. The movement of the dancer does not always motivate the camera, so Deren's visual expression remains free- floating. The spaces linked in this film range from the interior of a museum to the forest and courtyard. Deren writes, "The movement of the dancer creates a geography that never was. With a turn of the foot, he makes neighbors of distant places." As Beattey spins, he appears to develop more than one face, forming an illusion of a totem pole."

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